" (p 6) ). .
Eagles are the sacred birds of Zeus (and not indigenous to Ireland). As the voice of "Dante" speaks from another time (14th century Italy), so he also speaks of a far away land and kosmos in which this foreign bird exists, and on another level, where Zeus is the most powerful god of an ancient pantheon. (It cannot be coincidental that "Thunder" the natural phenomenon associated with the Zeus deity - is the last name of a little boy in the following "section" of part I (p 21), presented as an ironic [as this is a tussle between school boys] but over-powering, unbeatable foe.) .
These two "shots from the blue" (flashes of dialogue from mother and Dante on the page before Stephen rains out his song), both introduced by an archaic, inspired, and elevated "O" (or, a mere interjective, colloquial "O", if we read these lines mundanely, as in common speech; both levels, mundane and elated, are surely implied by Joyce) warn Stephen and guide him. He must achieve a special vision like the eagles of Zeus, like the king of the Greek pantheon (the master of the universe in which Daedalus lives). Or, Stephen is warned by polyphonic sources (governess Dante, the specter of the poet Dante, and by his own self as he chants his rhyme), he will lose his "eyes" and "sight" (that is, he will lose his special artistic vision, the product of which is "apology" [see below]) altogether. He is receiving a challenge from a mythical source that speaks to his latent Deadalic identity. .
If then, by this passage, we are to assume that Stephen is receiving some sort of primal message echoed from artists and artistic/inspired legacies across the ages, and we then metonymically link Stephen and his eyes to the clawing eagles, we may ask what sort of sight might be associated with "eagles". From lore (and science) we know that eagles possess an ability to see over great distances (eight times that of humans, in fact) and an ability to navigate (as winged creatures) through and across this distance.