What does 'met him pike hoses' mean in Ulysses?
"Met him pike hoses" is Molly Bloom's mangled version of "metempsychosis", a Greek word for the transmigration of souls: the belief that a soul is reborn in another body after death. She asks Bloom what it means in "Calypso" (Episode 4), and the phrase becomes a running joke and a key idea.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Episode 4, Calypso. Molly asks Bloom about the word in bed in "Calypso"; Bloom recalls her version of it in "Lestrygonians" (Episode 8).
Met him pike hoses she called it till I told her about the transmigration.
What it means in plain English
On the morning of 16 June, Bloom brings Molly her breakfast. She has been reading a racy novel and points to a word: metempsychosis. She asks what it means. Bloom tries to explain that the Greeks believed a person's soul could pass into another body after death.
Molly, half joking, wants it in plain words. Later, Bloom remembers her calling it "met him pike hoses", turning a learned Greek word into everyday English sounds.
The word returns throughout the day. Bloom thinks of it again; Molly returns to it in her final monologue. It fits a book in which old stories are reborn in new bodies: Odysseus as Bloom, Penelope as Molly.
Literary context
Metempsychosis is a joke version of what Ulysses does to the Odyssey. Homer's characters are "reborn" as ordinary Dubliners.
It also touches Bloom's grief. He lost his son Rudy as a baby and his father to suicide, so the idea of souls living on has a private weight for him.
References
- Ulysses, Episodes 4, 8, 11, 13 and 18
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
What is metempsychosis?
The transmigration of souls: the belief that after death a soul passes into a new body, human or animal.
Who says 'met him pike hoses'?
It is Molly's version of the word, remembered by Bloom in his thoughts.
Why is metempsychosis important in Ulysses?
It mirrors the novel's method: Homer's ancient characters are reborn in modern Dublin.
Related terms
Molly Bloom
Leopold's wife, a singer, whose long unpunctuated monologue closes the book on the word 'yes.' Joyce's Penelope.
Leopold Bloom
The central character: a kind, curious advertising canvasser whose wanderings give the novel its shape. Joyce's modern Odysseus.
Homeric parallels
The loose mapping of Ulysses onto Homer's Odyssey, with each episode echoing a scene from the ancient poem.