Ulysses Essay 29 (46:25)

Chapter 3 (Proteus) Note 15

“Lucifer, dico, qui nescit occasum”

Stephen becomes aware of some clouding of the late spring sky, noting to himself that the summer solstice is only five days off, but dismisses the possibility of a threatening thunderstorm, since there are “no black clouds anywhere, are there?” These ruminations of contrasting light and darkness, stir up a vague memory of a line from the Easter Holy Saturday liturgy: "Lucifer, dico, qui nescit occasum”   (“Lucifer, I say, who knows no setting”), “Lucifer” (literally: “bringing light”) is here a synonym for the morning star (Venus) as clearly expressed in the full version of the liturgical text which, quite typically for Joyce, Stephen has slightly altered by substituting “dico” for “inquam” (Latin synonyms for “I say”). The original text runs: “Flammus eius Lucifer matutinus inveniat. Ille, inquam, Lucifer qui nescit occasum Christus filius tuus, qui, regressus ab inferis, humano generi serenus illuxit, et vivit et regnat in saecula saeculorum” (“May the rising morning star find the flame burning still – that morning star, I say, that knows no setting – your son Christ, who, once he returned from hell, shone serenely on all mankind and lives and rules for all time”).

The obvious problem with this text is that it unambiguously refers to Christ as “Lucifer” (i.e., the “morning star”), whereas in the popular imagination and in Christian theology as well Lucifer is much more well-known as none other than Satan (or “the Devil”), who according to Christian thinking was the “morning star who fell from heaven.”  So Lucifer is both Christ and Satan. This contrapuntal juxtaposition seems to fit Stephen’s (and Joyce’s) anti-religious mode of thinking, and matches Stephen’s ruminations of a simultaneously clear and cloudy sky.

Here an elucidation of the biblical source of the term “Lucifer” can perhaps throw more light on the matter, both literally and figuratively. The Vulgate translation of the Bible uses the neutral Latin term “lucifer” (“bringer of light” or “morning-star”) to translate an exceedingly rare Hebrew word “heilel” which appears in the fourteenth chapter of the book of Isaiah (and indeed nowhere else in the Tanach). The Vulgate also uses “lucifer” to translate three other astronomical references: Job 11:17 (“the light of the morning”); Job 38:32 (“the constellations in their time”); and Psalms 110:3 (“the dawn”). But of these four mentions of “lucifer” in the Vulgate, the King James Version only once makes use of  the term “lucifer” (as in the Vulgate, but notably capitalizing it – “Lucifer”) when translating the difficult word “heilel” in the verse in Isaiah.  In the relevant prophecy, Isaiah foretells the downfall of the tyrannical and all-conquering King of Babylon as follows (my translation is free, but I have left “Lucifer” to connote “heilel”): “How have you fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of dawn; how have you been cut down to the earth – you who conquered nations. For you said in your heart: ‘I will ascend to the heavens, I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit upon the mount of assembly at the ends of the North. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will resemble the Most High’” (Isaiah 14:12-14). It is noteworthy that modern translation almost always use the term “morning star” to translate “heilel” rather than ”Lucifer”  and some even leave “heilel” untranslated.

It is clear that Christian theology, consistent with its recurrent prefigurative use of the Tanach, preferred to put aside the historical context of Isaiah’s prophecy and to read the Vulgate and King James texts as a description of a fallen angel named Lucifer who personifies Satan – the devil who in his hubris, like Adam and Eve, wished to supersede God in knowledge and power. In fact in the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells his disciples, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Stephen clearly refers to this “fall” when, prior to (mis)quoting to himself the Easter Saturday liturgical text with its reference to Lucifer as Christ, he thinks, “Allbright he falls, proud lightning of the intellect.” Perhaps in Stephen’s thinking, when Lucifer is a star, he is Christ; but when he falls, he is Satan. Still, it’s no question that Stephen prefers Satan, the fallen intellectual, to Christ, the eternally risen star.

As to the etymology of the rare Hebrew term “heilel”, to a non-philologist like myself the term certainly suggests light, although the experts argue about its precise etymology. The similar sounding Hebrew word “hila” mean a halo, and indeed our youngest son’s wife is called Hila, a very popular girl’s name in Israel. Appropriately our son, Hila’s husband, is called Ori – “my light”.