| Cthulhu | |
|---|---|
| Cthulhu Mythos character | |
 Sketch of Cthulhu drawn by Lovecraft (11 May 1934) | |
| First appearance | "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928) |
| Created by | H. P. Lovecraft |
| In-universe information | |
| Alias | The Sleeper of R'lyeh High Priest of the Great Old Ones |
| Species | Great Old One |
| Gender | Male |
| Relatives |
|
| Home | R'lyeh |
Cthulhu is afictionalcosmic entity created by writerH. P. Lovecraft. The character was introduced in hisshort story "The Call of Cthulhu",[2] published by the Americanpulp magazineWeird Tales in 1928. Considered aGreat Old One within thepantheon of Lovecraftian cosmic entities, he is depicted as a gigantic entity worshipped by cultists, in the shape of a greenoctopus,dragon, and acaricature of human form. As the namesake of the Lovecraft-inspiredCthulhu Mythos, Cthulhu has since been featured in numerous pop culture references.
Invented by Lovecraft in 1928, the name Cthulhu was probably chosen to echo the wordchthonic (Ancient Greek "of the earth"), as apparently suggested by Lovecraft himself at the end of his 1923 tale "The Rats in the Walls".[3] The chthonic, or earth-dwelling, spirit has precedents in numerous ancient and medieval mythologies, often guarding mines and precious underground treasures, notably in theGermanicdwarfs and the GreekChalybes,Telchines, orDactyls.[4]
Lovecraft transcribed the pronunciation ofCthulhu asKhlûl′-hloo, and said, "the first syllable pronounced gutturally and very thickly. The 'u' is about like that in 'full', and the first syllable is not unlike 'klul' in sound, hence the 'h' represents the guttural thickness"[5] yielding something akin to/ˈq(χ)lʊlˌɬuː/.S. T. Joshi points out, however, that Lovecraft gave different pronunciations on different occasions.[6] According to Lovecraft, this is merely the closest that the human vocal apparatus can come to reproducing the syllables of an alien language.[7] Cthulhu has also been spelled in many other ways, including Tulu, Katulu, and Kutulu.[8]
Long after Lovecraft's death,Chaosium stated in theCall of Cthulhurole-playing game: "we say it kuh-THOOL-hu" (/kəˈθuːluː/), even while noting that Lovecraft said it differently.[9] Others use the pronunciation/kəˈtuːluː/.[10][11]
In "The Call of Cthulhu", H. P. Lovecraft describes a statue of Cthulhu as: "A monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind."[12] A carving of Cthulhu is described thus: "It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol representing a monster, of a form which only a diseased fancy could conceive. If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, adragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy,tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentarywings."[12]
Johansen in The Call of Cthulhu states that "The Thing cannot be described—there is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order. A mountain walked or stumbled." Cthulhu is described again shortly thereafter as a "mountainous monstrosity". His age is described to be at least "vigintillions of years".[13] He is also said to have cast spells which preserved the Great Old Ones until their reawakening.
Cthulhu is said to resemble a green octopus, dragon, and a human caricature, hundreds of meters tall, with webbed, human-looking arms and legs and a pair of rudimentary wings on its back.[12] Its head is depicted as similar to the entirety of agigantic octopus, with an unknown number of tentacles surrounding its supposed mouth.
The short story that first mentions Cthulhu, "The Call of Cthulhu", was published inWeird Tales in 1928, and established the character as a malevolent entity, hibernating withinR'lyeh, an underwater city in theSouth Pacific. The imprisoned Cthulhu is apparently the source of constant subconscious anxiety for all mankind, and is also the object of worship, both by many human cults (including some withinNew Zealand,Greenland,Louisiana, and theChinese mountains) and by other Lovecraftian monsters (calledDeep Ones[14] andMi-Go[15]). The short story asserts the premise that, while currently trapped, Cthulhu will eventually return. His worshippers chant "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" ("In his house atR'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming").[12]
Lovecraft conceived a detailed genealogy for Cthulhu (published as "Letter 617" inSelected Letters)[1] and made the character a central reference in his works.[16] The short story "The Dunwich Horror" (1928)[17] refers to Cthulhu, while "The Whisperer in Darkness" (1930) hints that one of his characters knows the creature's origins ("I learned whence Cthulhu first came, and why half the great temporary stars of history had flared forth.")[15] The 1931novellaAt the Mountains of Madness refers to the "star-spawn of Cthulhu", who warred with another race called theElder Things before the dawn of man.[18]
August Derleth, a correspondent of Lovecraft's, used the creature's name to identify the system of lore employed by Lovecraft and his literary successors, theCthulhu Mythos. In 1937, Derleth wrote the short story "The Return of Hastur", and proposed two groups of opposed cosmic entities:
the Old or Ancient Ones, theElder Gods, ofcosmic good, and those ofcosmic evil, bearing many names, and themselves of different groups, as if associated with the elements and yet transcending them: for there are the Water Beings, hidden in the depths; those of Air that are the primal lurkers beyond time; those of Earth, horrible animate survivors of distant eons.[19]: 256
According to Derleth's scheme, "Great Cthulhu is one of the Water Elementals" and was engaged in an age-old arch-rivalry with a designated air elemental,Hastur the Unspeakable, described as Cthulhu's "half-brother."[19]: 256, 266 Based on this framework, Derleth wrote a series of short stories published inWeird Tales (1944–1952) and collected asThe Trail of Cthulhu, depicting the struggle of a Dr. Laban Shrewsbury and his associates against Cthulhu and his minions. In addition, Cthulhu is referenced in Derleth's 1945 novelThe Lurker at the Threshold published byArkham House. The novel can also be found inThe Watchers Out of Time and Others, a collection of stories from Derleth's interpretations of Lovecraftian Mythos published by Arkham House in 1974.
Derleth's interpretations have been criticized by Lovecraft enthusiastMichel Houellebecq, among others. Houellebecq'sH. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (2005) decries Derleth for attempting to reshape Lovecraft's strictly amoral continuity into a stereotypical conflict between forces of objective good and evil.[20]
InJohn Glasby's "A Shadow from the Aeons", Cthulhu is seen by the narrator roaming the riverbank near Dominic Waldron's castle, and roaring.[21]
The character's influence also extended into gaming literature; games companyTSR included an entire chapter on the Cthulhu mythos (including character statistics) in the first printing ofDungeons & Dragons sourcebookDeities & Demigods (1980). TSR, however, were unaware thatArkham House, which asserted copyright on almost all Lovecraft literature, had already licensed the Cthulhu property to game companyChaosium. Although Chaosium stipulated that TSR could continue to use the material if each future edition featured a published credit to Chaosium, TSR refused and the material was removed from all subsequent editions.[22]
Cthulhu has appeared as aparody candidate in several elections, including the2010 Polish presidential election and the2012 and2016 US presidential elections.[23][24] The faux campaigns usually satirize voters who claim to vote for the "lesser evil". "Cthulhu for America" ran during the 2016 American presidential election, drawing comparisons with other satirical presidential candidates such asVermin Supreme.[25] The organization had a platform that included the legalization of human sacrifice, driving all Americans insane, and an end to peace.[26]
Several organisms have been named after Cthulhu, including the California spiderPimoa cthulhu,[27] the New Guinea mothSpeiredonia cthulhui,[28] andSollasina cthulhu, a fossil echinoderm.[29] Two microorganisms that assist in the digestion of wood by termites have been named after Cthulhu and Cthulhu's "daughter" Cthylla:Cthulhu macrofasciculumque andCthylla microfasciculumque.[30]
In 2014, science and technology scholarDonna Haraway gave a talk, "Anthropocene,Capitalocene, Chthulucene: Staying with the Trouble", in which she proposed the termChthulucene as an alternative for the concept of the Anthropocene era, due to the entangling interconnectedness of all supposedly individual beings.[31] Haraway has denied any indebtedness to Lovecraft's Cthulhu, claiming that herchthulu is derived from Greekkhthonios, "of the earth".[32] However, the Lovecraft character is much closer to her coined term than the Greek root, and her description of its meaning coincides with Lovecraft's idea of the apocalyptic, multitentacled threat of Cthulhu to collapse civilization into an endless dark horror: "Chthulucene does not close in on itself; it does not round off; its contact zones are ubiquitous and continuously spin out loopy tendrils."[33]
In July 2015, an elongated, dark region along the equator ofPluto, initially referred to as "the Whale", was proposed to be named "Cthulhu Regio", by the NASA team responsible for theNew Horizons mission.[34] The team changed the informal name to "Cthulhu Macula" later that year, as they considered it to be amacula.[35][36] TheInternational Astronomical Union did not follow the proposal, and the feature was officially named "Belton Regio" in 2023.[37]
