Well to the west in quest
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- well: the well or spring of clear water from which Phoenix Park takes its Irish name (Páirc an Fhinn Uisge, "The Park of the Clear Water")
- The West: in ancient Egyptian mythology the west was considered the realm of the dead. The sun sets in the west and in many countries the dead are buried facing west.
- to go west: to die
- well to the west → Howth is the easternmost point in Dublin, with Phoenix Park west of the city centre → Joyce's conception of Finn Mac Cool as a mythological sleeping giant, interred in the Dublin landscape, with his head beneath Howth (Danish hoved, "head") and his feet sticking up in Phoenix Park
- quest: in Egyptian mythology, when Set murders Osiris, he dismembers his body and scatters the parts across the land; Osiris's wife and sister Isis goes in quest of them so that she can resurrect Osiris
- quest → the quest of this body to find its own toes points to its lack of feeling – because it is either asleep or dead
- in quest → inquest, a judicial inquiry held to establish the cause and circumstances of someone's death
- quest: an expedition in search of some definite object, especially used in medieval romances for religious expeditions in search of the Holy Grail
