Gold

1. The most precious metal: characterized by a beautiful yellow colour, non-liability to rust, high specific gravity, and great malleability and ductility. Chemical symbol Au.
2. The metal regarded as a valuable possession or employed as a medium of exchange; hence, cold coin; also in rhetorical use, money in large sums, wealth.
3. fig. With allusion to the brilliancy, beauty, and transcendent preciousness of gold. Often in phr. Of gold = golden adj. heart of gold: a noble-hearted person; a kind and noble heart.

a. the metal as employed for coating a service, or as a pigment; gilding.

4. The metal as used for the ornamentation of textile fabrics; gold thread; in early use often with the place of manufacture specified.
5. The colour of the metal: a bright golden yellow.
6. Archery. The gilt centre or bulls-eye of a target. To make a gold: to hit the bulls-eye.

“Gold” appears in several contexts throughout Ulysses: as a noun, it’s synonymous with money and wealth; i.e., Dedalus goes to Deasy’s “strongroom for the gold” (29), where he’s lectured (very pompously) on the value of saving money. As an adjective, it’s used for lyrical, almost pastoral descriptions of the sea and surroundings: the “gold light on the sea” complements the “slender trees” and “lemon houses” Dedalus walks by (42); he thinks of “a girl with gold hair on the wind” (61), “tumbled beauties, shattering with gold teeth chaussons of pastry” (42), and “Danevikings, torcs of tomahawks aglitter on their breasts when Malachi wore the collar of gold” (45). In each mention, gold is associated with opulence—the decadence of gold teeth and pastry—or loot, like Deasy’s strongroom or the Danevikings’ plunder. Death floats around some of these allusions: “It’s all the same,” Bloom thinks on the way to the funeral. “Palbearers, gold reins…pomp of death” (100). The use of the word ‘gold’ seems to gild the concept of death and decay, but the effect is one that heightens rather than eases the narrative’s descriptions of death. “Poetical idea pink, then golden, then grey, then black…Day, then the night,” thinks Bloom (69). Even the idealized “greengoldenly lagoons” Dedalus notices on his walk seem indicative of an idealized decay and sickness that pervades his conception of Ireland.