ABSTRACT
Homer's Odyssey went through a series of corrections and confiscations, and was later to face both obscenity charges and military code-breakers' scrutiny, but James Joyce's Ulysses was finally published in its entirety. Although Joyce introduces many of his references well before the "Sirens" chapter, within that chapter he greatly intensifies their density and importance. This diegetic music is of primary importance to the episode and Bloom's thoughts are invaded by it. So, there is a tradition of viewing Ulysses in relation to its correspondences to Homer's Odyssey. Some examples of polyphony within "Sirens" will show how Joyce achieves this contrapuntal effect. There is no denying Joyce's success with "Sirens." "Sirens" is an intensely contrapuntal work on many levels. Joyce forces a reading of the chapter as a whole that is contrapuntal. In Ulysses, Joyce augments his devouring of poetry, novels, plays, architecture, and the romance languages by also cannibalizing music.
