The Four Old Men appear throughout Finnegans Wake in a number of guises. Campbell and Robinson list some of these appearances as four judges, four winds, Four Master Annalists of Ireland, Four Waves of Ireland, Four Evangelists, four Viconian ages, and four chroniclers.

This post discusses the Four Old Men and elaborates the connection Joyce draws between them and William Blake’s Four Zoas. I consider how both sets of symbols can be attributed to four of the five senses, the fifth sense (touch) being attributed to their combination or that which underlies the four (HCE or, in Blake, Albion). My speculations are tentative and incomplete, but they may be an interesting jumping off point for future thoughts on the subject.