The Birth

Throughout Lolita, there are numerous references to the image of Venus, the Greek goddess of love (married to the god of war). The first reference I found was on page 58, "Dimly there came into view: a surrealist painter relaxing, supine, on a beach, and near him, likewise supine, a plaster replica of the Venus de Milo, half-buried in sand."

Only a few pages later, on page 64, to be exact, Humbert Humbert, always the well-read poetic genius, recites, "I regretted keenly her mistake about my private aesthetics, for I simply love that tinge of Botticellian pink, that raw rose about the lips, those wet, matted eyelashes". Here Humbert references Botticelli's captivating painting, the Birth of Venus.

The recurrence of the references to Venus, only serves to conjur images of love, lust, beauty and idyllic womanhood. But we cannot forget that the goddess remains inextricably wed to the lord of war. Love and war writhe over one another in an attempt to gain dominion over our souls, over Humbert's...soul. While, the affair between Humbert and Lolita starts, at least for Humbert, with lust, he only achieves true love when he has lost her, when he stands on the brink of war with his double and rival, Clare Quilty. "As I approached the friendly abyss, I grew aware of a melodious unity of sounds [. . .] And soon I realized that all these sounds were of one nature [. . .] and then I knew that the hopelessly poignant thing was not Lolita's absence from my side, but the absence of her voice from that concord" (308).