e subsequent ages of literature. What could be said to be distinctive to this particular use of the tale is the specific era Joyce was writing in. As one of the archetypal Modernist authors of the early twentieth century, Joyce is not alone in his aping of classical literature. Modernism absolutely refused the legacy left to literature by the periods immediately preceding it. Neither Victorianism's tendency to moralize nor Romanticism's transcendence of grim reality sat well with the new breed of modern writers, including not only Joyce but Ezra Pound, Richard Aldington et. al. The rapid social change experienced by the Western world post-nineteenth century demanded new forms of expressing the reality of this harsh new world. This can be neatly summed up in Pound's famous term 'make it new'. However the movement did see the return to use of the models of classical Greece and
             even ancient China. In this context the paralleling of the two works can be seen to have external influences.
             However, the plot of Ulysses really is only very loosely based on The Odyssey. To find the parallels and similarities between them requires the reader to become involved in actively looking for echoes of the Grecian themes in the modern work. Once one has located the obvious and elucidated the obscure, the affinities are numerous.
             Perhaps the most obvious theme running through both books is the quest for paternity. Odysseus strives to make his way home to his son, while Telemachus actively searches for his long lost father. The father and son relationship is one of the most famous aspects of The Odyssey; it is therefore hardly surprising that we see
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