Before moving to Ramsdale, Dolores Haze (in VN's novel Lolita, 1955, Lolita's full name) and her mother Charlotte lived in Pisky, the Haze home town in the Middle West:
She had been spiteful, if you please, at the age of one, when she used to throw her toys out of her crib so that her poor mother should keep picking them up, the villainous infant! Now, at twelve, she was a regular pest, said Haze. All she wanted from life was to be one day a strutting and prancing baton twirler or a jitterbug. Her grades were poor, but she was better adjusted in her new school than in Pisky (Pisky was the Haze home town in the Middle West. The Ramsdale house was her late mother-in-law’s. They had moved to Ramsdale less than two years ago). “Why was she unhappy there?” “Oh,” said Haze, “poor me should know, I went through that when I was a kid: boys twisting one’s arm, banging into one with loads of books, pulling one’s hair, hurting one’s breasts, flipping one’s skirt. Of course, moodiness is a common concomitant of growing up, but Lo exaggerates. Sullen and evasive. Rude and defiant. Struck Viola, an Italian schoolmate, in the seat with a fountain pen. Know what I would like? If you, monsieur, happened to be still here in the fall, I’d ask you to help her with her homeworkyou seem to know everything, geography, mathematics, French.” “Oh, everything,” answered monsieur. “That means,” said Haze quickly, “you’ll be here!” I wanted to shout that I would stay on eternally if only I could hope to caress now and then my incipient pupil. But I was wary of Haze. So I just grunted and stretched my limbs nonconcomitantly (le mot juste) and presently went up to my room. The woman, however, was evidently not prepared to call it a day. I was already lying upon my cold bed both hands pressing to my face Lolita’s fragrant ghost when I heard my indefatigable landlady creeping stealthily up to my door to whisper through itjust to make sure, she said, I was through with the Glance and Gulp magazine I had borrowed the other day. From her room Lo yelled she had it. We are quite a lending library in this house, thunder of God. (1.11)
The name of Lolita's home town, Pisky seems to hint at Pisces, a constellation of Babylonian origin. The Babylonians saw it as a pair of fish joined by a cord. The constellation is usually associated with the Roman myth of Venus and Cupid, who tied themselves with a rope and transformed into fish to escape the monster Typhon. Pisces is the twelfth and final astrological sign in the zodiac. It is a negative, mutable sign. It spans 330° to 360° of celestial longitude. Under the tropical zodiac, the sun transits this area between February 19 and March 20. In astrology, Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, considered as governing the period from about March 21 to about April 19. Latin for "ram," Aries brings to mind Ares, the ancient Greek god of war who corresponds to Mars, the Roman god of war for whom March (the third month of the year) was named.
According to Humbert, Rita (a girl whom Humbert picked up one depraved May evening somewhere between Montreal and New York), had some Spanish or Babylonian blood:
She was twice Lolita’s age and three quarters of mine: a very slight, dark-haired, pale-skinned adult, weighing a hundred and five pounds, with charmingly asymmetrical eyes, and angular, rapidly sketched profile, and a most appealing ensellure - to her supple back - I think she had some Spanish or Babylonian blood. I picked her up one depraved May evening somewhere between Montreal and New York, or more narrowly, between Toylestown and Blake, at a drakishly burning bar under the sign of the Tigermoth, where she was amiably drunk: she insisted we had gone to school together, and she placed her trembling little hand on my ape paw. My senses were very slightly stirred but I decided to give her a try; I didand adopted her as a constant companion. She was so kind, was Rita, such a good sport, that I daresay she would have given herself to any pathetic creature or fallacy, an old broken tree or a bereaved porcupine, out of sheer chumminess and compassion. (2.26)
May (in Latin, Maius) was named for the Greek goddess Maia, who was identified with the Roman era goddess of fertility, Bona Dea, whose festival was held in May. Conversely, the Roman poet Ovid provides a second etymology, in which he says that the month of May is named for the maiores, Latin for "elders," and that the following month (June) is named for the iuniores, or "young people" (Fasti VI.88). Thirty-seven-year-old Humbert comes to Ramsdale and falls in love with twelve-year-old Lolita in June, 1947.
342 Lawn Street (the address of the Haze house in Ramsdale) also makes one think of March, April and February (the third, the fourth and the second months of a year). April takes its name from the Latin word aperire, meaning 'to open' (just like flowers do in spring); February is named after an ancient Roman festival of purification called Februa.
Lolita was born on January 1, 1935, in Pisky, and dies in Gray Star (the book's capital that hints at Juneau, a city in Alaska) on Christmas Day, 1952. January was named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, gates and transitions who has two faces. In the Goat (Capricorn, the tenth sign of the zodiac governing the period from about December 21 to January 19) Jupiter (the Roman god of the sky and thunder, Juno's husband) gets weaker and sighs:
Great Jupiter is now my name,
The second planet, strong in fame.
I am moist and truly warm,
By nature I can do no harm.
Two signs I have, their houses mine-
Archer and fishes, which golden shine.
Seek and prove me there, I pray:
Much good will surely come your way.
When in the Crab, I'm lifted high.
Weaker, in the Goat I sigh.
My passage round the twelve signs is
In twelve long years accomplished.