The Red Admira(b)le

I was following the thread of "My dark Vanessa" notes and I thought maybe Kinbote was trying to associate Shade's butterfly wife to something death related, because he didn't like her.  I googled some stuff, but while I didn't actually find much on the Red Admiral and death, I did stumble across other knowledge tidbits. 

The Red Admiral belongs to the genus Vanessa and the family Nymphalidae.  
Vanessa Atalanta
A butterfly website had a caption: "Red Admiral: Military Man Among the Ladies."  I wasn't exactly sure what was meant by that until I looked deeper into Kinbote's lines "Vanhomrigh and Esther!" Esther Vanhomrigh was a lover of Jonathan Swift, who fictionalized her as "Vanessa" in his poem "Cadenus and Vanessa."  The plot goes--- that nymphs and shepherds levy a complaint against Cupid, saying that he is not doing his job of spreading love everywhere.  Cupid retorts that no woman is worth loving, because all women are vain and stupid.  The nymphs were mad and the fighting went back and forth until Venus decides to experiment.  She creates a "near perfect woman" and names her Vanessa.  (Venus, Vanessa)  Vanessa is kind of raised like a dude-- she gets lessons on knowledge, judgment and wit.  It turns out Venus is more interested in creating a new, more masculine model for women in Vanessa, but the other women don't care for the new values and are mean to the manly woman.  Cupid tries shooting arrows at her, and she deflects most of them, because she has a book of poems in her hands.  At some point, a tip of an arrow pierces through her book into her, and she "falls in love" with Cadenus (Swift), her tutor.  But when Cadenus finally says, "okay, I like you" things get confused, because he starts using love language, which is kind of feminine and kind of what he has taught her to despise.  So she becomes the teacher, showing him how to love more rationally (more man-like).  And in the case Nymphs v. Cupid, the ruling is that the problem with little love lies in men rather than women. Which is true when you think about Kinbote and Disa. It sounds like Disa is a beautiful and less annoying (to him) version of Sibyl, but he doesn't go for her.  It's not her fault though.  It's totally all him. 

Moving on to the Atalanta part of the name- Atalanta is a female athlete in Greek mythology.  Like Vanessa, she exhibits masculine qualities.  She is a hunter, a foot racer. . .an all around Xena Warrior Princess type, I guess.  Strong and sexy.  And independent.  She was warned to never marry, so she came out with a decree-- no man would be able to marry her unless he could beat her in a foot race.  A guy named Melanion wanted to take her hand, but knew he couldn't win without help.  He went to Aprohodite (Venus) and received three golden apples from her.  He then challenged Atalanta to a race, and every time she darted ahead, he chucked an apple in her path.  I don't know why, but whenever he did that, she just had to slow down and check it out.  Because of her . . . curiosity? stupidity?  she lost the race.  There was some seducing action between the victor and Atalanta in Zeus' temple, which is also stupid; because Zeus came down and turned them into lions. . . . "magnificent, velvet-and-flame creature" (p 290).

So, I think Sybil, as a "Vanessa Atalanta," might have been trying to re-educate John Shade (Jonathan Swift! Lightbulb aka Cadenus) in a way.  He is really poetic and flowery and beautiful, and she seems to endorse that creativity, but she also weighs in a lot of influence (according to Kinbote).   


"Come and be worshiped, come and be caressed,/ My dear Vanessa, crimson-barred, my blest,/ My Admirable butterfly!" (ln 269-271).