The Milk Woman is an unnamed, minor character appearing only in Telemachus—starting on page 36 of the comic. As her moniker suggests, she delivers a quart of milk to Haines, Buck Mulligan, and Stephen Dedalus for their breakfast at Martello Tower. A woman whose body is diminished with age, Stephen envisions her at once as a poor old woman deftly milking her cows in the field, a witch upon a toadstool, and as a kind of messenger: perhaps an analogue for Athena, who appears to Telemachus as an old man in the first book of The Odyssey. Her act of servitude—harvesting and selling the wholesome, nourishing products of Irish agriculture—makes her a “common cuckquean” in Stephen’s eyes: both to “her conqueror” (Haines, the Englishman) and her “gay betrayer” (the joyful Mulligan, choosing English Haines over Irish Dedalus). She is particularly impressed with Mulligan’s status as a medical student.

 
Hanes likely sees her as an iconic Irish peasant, and he tries (unsuccessfully) to speak Gaelic with her. She mistakes the language for French, which rather destroys the image. Nevertheless, she finds the language beautiful and regrets her inability to speak it.

Fun Fact: Rob’s visualization of the Milk Woman initially earned the project censorship from Apple!