Seriousness versus satire, or the tragic versus the comic. As later becomes clear in the novel, Greece also represents Ireland, while Rome (and its Christian tradition) represents England; Greece represents the intellect (which is associated with Stephen Dedalus) while Rome represents practicality (which is associated with Leopold Bloom); and Greece represents the lost origins—or paternity—that Western artists and thinkers are trying to recover (much like Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom try to redeem their own bloodlines in the novel).