Bloom's father Rudolph apparently named his dog "Athos" after
the character in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers,
but there also seems to be an echo of Odysseus' dog, who has
the very similar name of Argos. Argos perks up and then dies
after seeing Odysseus, who left for Troy 19 years earlier.
Bloom thinks in Hades that Athos too "took
it to heart, pined away" when his master died.
In Book 17 of the Odyssey Eumaeus and Odysseus pass
by an impressive-looking old dog lying in piles of dung and
covered with fleas. The dog raises his head, pricks up his
ears, wags his tails, and then loses the strength to hold his
ears up, much less to approach his old master. The disguised
Odysseus wipes away a tear and questions Eumaeus about the
handsome animal. After telling the beggar about the dog's
glory days, the noble man who raised him from a puppy, and the
duties that are forgotten when a lord goes away, Eumaeus goes
into the palace to tend to the needs of the insolent suitors.
Argos, having finally seen the man he longed for, gives up the
ghost.
Bloom, who is kind to stray dogs (in Circe he gives
one the meat he has bought, and in Eumaeus he
remembers Molly's vexation when he tried to bring one home),
remembers his father's instructions in his suicide note: "Be
good to Athos, Leopold, is my last wish." He
recalls the note again in Ithaca: "be kind
to Athos, Leopold...," remembering Athos as "an
infirm dog."
