Mulligan tosses Stephen his "Latin quarter hat"
as the young men prepare to begin their day outside the tower,
and in Proteus Stephen, reminiscing about his time
in Paris, thinks of the counter-cultural poses that both he
and Mulligan are striking in the world: "My Latin
quarter hat. God, we simply must dress the character."
(Haines too dresses informally
in a "soft grey hat.")
Gifford describes Stephen's hat as “A soft or slouch hat
associated with the art and student worlds of the Latin
Quarter in Paris, as against the 'hard' hats (bowlers or
derbies) then fashionable in Dublin.” In December 1902 Joyce
mailed a Parisian photo-postcard of himself posing in such a
hat to his friend J. F. Byrne.
The look contrasts sharply with most of the headgear that one
would have seen on Dublin streets.
In Proteus Stephen thinks of this bohemian topper
as "my Hamlet hat." But its resemblance to
certain clerical chapeaux causes some people to refer to
Stephen as a clergyman. Early in Oxen of the Sun he
is described as having the "mien of a frere,"
and near the end of the chapter someone says or thinks, “Jay,
look at the drunken minister coming out of the maternity
hospal! Benedicat vos omnipotens Deus, Pater et
Filius.” Shortly later, he is called "Parson
Steve." At the beginning of the next chapter, Circe,
two British soldiers call out derisively to him as "parson."
