Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0023307, Sat, 8 Sep 2012 00:07:13 +0300

Subject
Loulou-Jocasta
Date
Body
Have I given away Box I (son and husband of Loulou, the housekeeper's pet), that old brown dachshund fast asleep on the sofa? (Speak, Memory, Chapter Five, 2)

In Drugie Berega VN compares Loulou to Jocasta, king Oedipus's mother and wife: Не помню, одалживал ли я кому Бокса Первого, любимца ключницы, пережившего свою Лулу-Иокасту.

Jocasta's first husband (Oedipus's father) was Laius. In Russian, his name is homonymous with lai, "bark(ing)." One recalls Hodasevich's Apollinazm:
«На Лая лаем лай! На Лая лаем лаял…
То пёс, то лютый пёс! Поспел, посмел!» То спел
Нам Демодок, медок в устах тая. И таял,
И Маем Майи маял. Маем Майи млел.

Ты, Демодок, медок (медовый ток) замедли!
Медовый ток лия — подли, помедли лить!
Сей страстный, сластный бред душе, душе не вред ли?
Душе, вдыхая вздох, — паря, не воспарить.

In his alliteration-rich poem Hodasevich mentions Laius, as well as the blind rhapsodist Demodocos, a character in the Odyssey. In Homer's poem Argos is Odysseus' faithful dog who recognizes his master after twenty years and immediately dies. (Argos was also the name of one of the 'hellhounds,' the dogs of the underworld, brother of Cerberus.)

Alexey Sklyarenko

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