How does the Lestrygonians episode begin?
“Pineapple rock, lemon platt, butter scotch” are the opening words of Episode 8. Bloom passes a sweetshop on O'Connell Street at about 1 pm and his hungry mind lists the sweets in the window. The episode is all about food and appetite.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Episode 8, Lestrygonians. Bloom, passing Graham Lemon's sweetshop.
Pineapple rock, lemon platt, butter scotch. A sugarsticky girl shovelling scoopfuls of creams for a christian brother.
What it means in plain English
Joyce opens with the sound and taste of the words themselves. A few lines later, someone hands Bloom the “Elijah is coming” flyer.
Bloom will walk through Dublin to Davy Byrne's, thinking about food at every step.
Literary context
Lemon's sweetshop on Lower Sackville Street was real.
References
- Ulysses, Episode 8, “Lestrygonians”
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
Continue in the Reading Room
Questions readers ask
What is lemon platt?
A plaited lemon-flavoured boiled sweet.
Related terms
Elijah
“Elijah is coming” is the headline of a religious flyer, a “throwaway”, handed to Bloom in Episode 8. He crumples it and throws it into the Liffey, and it floats through Wandering Rocks. In Circe, Elijah himself appears. In the Bible, the prophet's return announces the end of the world.
“Peace and war depend on some fellow's digestion”
“Peace and war depend on some fellow's digestion” is Bloom's thought in Episode 8, as hungry, he walks through Dublin at lunchtime. It sums up his humane, practical outlook: the great events of history may come down to whether a powerful man has had a good lunch.
Davy Byrne's
Davy Byrne's is the pub on Duke Street where Bloom eats a gorgonzola cheese sandwich and drinks a glass of burgundy in Episode 8. He calls it a “moral pub”. It is still open, and is crowded with readers every Bloomsday.