Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses/Aeolus/134

Annotations

ITALIA, MAGISTRA ARTIUM     (Latin) Italy, Mistress of the Arts. There may be an allusion to the Master of Arts or Magister Artium, a postgraduate degree awarded by universities for excellence in the humanities. In the Middle Ages the arts in question were the Seven Liberal Arts, but new subjects were gradually added to the curriculum.

lex talionis     (Latin) law of talion; law of retaliation in kind. The lex talionis is the Latin form of the Mosaic principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, in which the punishment inflicted upon a criminal is similar to the crime he committed.