This schema for the novel Ulysses was produced by Joyce in 1920 to help a friend (Carlo Linati) understand the fundamental structure of the book. The schema has been split into two subtables for better ease of reading.
Title |
Time |
Colour |
People |
Science / Art |
Meaning |
Telemachus |
8am - 9am |
Gold / white |
- Telemachus
- Mentor
- Antinous
- The Suitors
- Penelope
|
Theology |
Dispossessed son in contest |
Nestor |
9am - 10am |
Brown |
- Telemachus
- Nestor
- Pisistratus
- Helen
|
History |
The wisdom of the ancients |
Proteus |
10am - 11am |
Blue |
- Telemachus
- Proteus
- Menelaus
- Helen
- Megapenthes
|
Philology |
Primal matter |
Calypso |
8am - 9am |
Orange |
- Calypso
- Penelope
- Ulysses
- Callidike
|
Mythology |
The departing wayfarer |
Lotus Eaters |
9am - 10am |
Dark brown |
- Euryloches
- Polites
- Ulysses
- Nausicaa
|
Chemistry |
The temptation of faith |
Hades |
11am - 12pm |
Black-white |
- Ulysses
- Elpenor
- Ajax
- Agamemnon
- Hercules
- Eriphyle
- Sisyphus
- Orion
- Laertes etc.
- Prometheus
- Cerberus
- Tiresais
- Hades
- Prosperpina
- Telemachus
- Antinous
|
- |
The descent into nothingness |
Aeolus |
12pm - 1pm |
Red |
- Aeolus
- Sons
- Telemachus
- Mentor
- Ulysses
|
Rhetoric |
The derision of victory |
Lestrygonians |
1pm - 2pm |
Blood red |
- Antiphates
- The seductive daughter
- Ulysses
|
Architecture |
Despondency |
Scylla and Charybdis |
2pm - 3pm |
- |
- Scylla
- Charbydis
- Telemachus
- Ulysses
- Antinous
|
Literature |
The double-edge sword |
Wandering Rocks |
3pm - 4pm |
Rainbow |
- Objects
- Places
- Forces
- Ulysses
|
Mechanics |
The hostile milieu |
Sirens |
4pm - 5pm |
Coral |
- Leucothea
- Parthenope
- Ulysses
- Orpheus
- Menelaus
- Argonauts
|
Music |
The sweet deceit |
Cyclops |
5pm - 6pm |
Green |
- Prometheus
- Noman
- Galatea
- Ulysses
|
Surgery |
Egocidal terror |
Nausicaa |
8pm - 9pm |
Grey |
- Nausicaa
- Handmaidens
- Alcinous
- Arete
- Ulysses
|
Painting |
The projected mirage |
Oxen of the Sun |
10pm - 11pm |
White |
- Lampetie
- Phaethusa
- Helios Hyperion
- Jove
- Ulysses
|
Physics |
The eternal herds |
Circe |
11pm - 12am |
Violet |
- Circe
- The Swine
- Telemachus
- Ulysses
- Hermes
|
Dance |
The man-hating ogress |
Eumaeus |
12pm - 1am |
- |
- Eumaeus
- Ulysses
- Telemachus
- The Bad Goatherd
- Pseudangelos
|
- |
The ambush on home ground |
Ithaca |
1pm - 2am |
- |
- Ulysses
- Telemachus
- Eurycleia
- The suitors
|
- |
Armed hope |
Penelope |
|
- |
|
- |
The past sleeps |
Title |
Technic |
Organ |
Symbols |
Telemachus |
Dialogue for three and four,
narration,
soliloquy
|
- |
Hamlet, Ireland, Stephen |
Nestor |
Dialogue for 2,
narration,
soliloquy
|
- |
Ulster, woman, practical sense |
Proteus |
Soliloquy
|
- |
World, tide, Moon, evolution, metamorphosis |
Calypso |
Dialogue for 2,
soliloquy
|
Kidneys |
Vagina, exile, nymph, Israel in captivity |
Lotus Eaters |
Dialogue, prayer, soliloquy
|
Skin |
Host, penis in the bath, froth, flower, drugs, castration, oats |
Hades |
Dialogue, narration
|
Heart |
Cemetry, sacred heart, the past, the unknown man, the unconscious, heart defect, relics, heartbreak |
Aeolus |
Simbouleutike, dikanike, epideictic, tropes
|
Lungs |
Machines, wind, fame, kite, failed destinies, the press, mutability |
Lestrygonians |
Peristaltic prose
|
Oesophagus |
Bloody sacrifice,
food,
shame
|
Scylla and Charybdis |
Whirlpools
|
Brain |
Hamlet,
Shakespeare,
Christ,
Socrates,
London,
Stratford,
scholasticism,
mysticism,
Plato,
Aristotle,
youth,
maturity
|
Wandering Rocks |
Shifting labyrinth between two shores
|
Blood |
Caesar,
Christ,
errors,
homonyms,
synchronisms,
resemblances
|
Sirens |
Fuga per canonem
|
Ear |
Promises,
female,
sounds,
embellishments
|
Cyclops |
Alternating asymmetry |
Muscles, bones |
Nation,
state,
religion,
dynasty,
idealism,
exaggeration,
fanaticism,
collectivity
|
Nausicaa |
Retrogressive progression |
Eye, nose |
Onanism,
feminine,
hypocrisy
|
Oxen of the Sun |
Prose, embryo, foetus, birth
|
Matrix, uterus |
Fertilisation,
frauds,
parthenogenesis
|
Circe |
Exploding vision
|
Locomotor apparatus, skeleton |
Zoology,
personification,
pantheism,
magic,
poison,
antidote,
reel
|
Eumaeus |
Relaxed prose |
Nerves |
- |
Ithaca |
Dialogue, pacified style, fusion
|
Juices |
- |
Penelope |
Monologue, resigned style
|
Fat |
- |
|
|