Cthulhu is a fictional space creature created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. The character first appeared in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu," which was published in the American magazine Weird Tales in 1928. In the world of Lovecraft's stories, Cthulhu is considered a Great Old One, a powerful being worshipped by followers in a large, green human-like form that includes features of an octopus and a dragon. As the namesake of the Cthulhu Mythos, a collection of stories inspired by Lovecraft's work, Cthulhu has appeared in many books, movies, and other forms of popular culture.
Etymology, spelling, and pronunciation
The name Cthulhu was created by H.P. Lovecraft in 1928. He likely chose the name to sound similar to the Greek word "chthonic," which means "of the earth." Lovecraft himself explained this connection in his 1923 story "The Rats in the Walls." The idea of chthonic spirits, or earth-dwelling beings, appears in many ancient and medieval myths. These spirits often protected mines and underground treasures, as seen in stories about Germanic dwarfs and Greek figures like the Chalybes, Telchines, and Dactyls.
Lovecraft wrote that the pronunciation of Cthulhu should be "Khlûl′-hloo." He described the first syllable as being spoken in a deep, rough way, similar to the "klul" sound. The "u" is like the "u" in "full." This pronunciation, /ˈq(χ)lʊlˌɬuː/, is the closest humans can get to how an alien language might sound. However, Lovecraft sometimes gave different pronunciations for the name. He explained that these variations reflect the difficulty of imitating sounds from a language not originally spoken by humans. The name Cthulhu has also been spelled in other ways, such as Tulu, Katulu, and Kutulu.
After Lovecraft’s death, the company Chaosium used the pronunciation "kuh-THOOL-hu" (/kəˈθuːluː/) in its Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. They noted that this differs from Lovecraft’s own pronunciation. Some people use the pronunciation /kəˈtuːluː/ instead.
Description
In "The Call of Cthulhu," H. P. Lovecraft describes a statue of Cthulhu as: "A monster with a shape somewhat like a human, but with a head resembling an octopus, covered in many feelers. Its body is scaly and rubbery, with large claws on both its front and back legs, and long, narrow wings on its back." A carving of Cthulhu is described as: "It looked like a monster or a symbol of a monster, a form that only a wild imagination could imagine. If I say that my imagination showed me a mix of an octopus, a dragon, and a funny-looking human, I would be describing it accurately. The creature had a soft, tentacled head on top of a body covered in scales and with small wings."
In "The Call of Cthulhu," Johansen says, "The Thing cannot be described—there are no words to explain such deep, terrifying sounds and ancient madness, such strange and impossible things that break all rules of the universe. A mountain walked or stumbled." Cthulhu is later described as a "huge, mountain-like monster." His age is said to be at least "vigintillions of years." He is also described as using magic to keep the Great Old Ones safe until they return.
Cthulhu is said to be hundreds of meters tall, with arms and legs that look like human limbs but have webbing between them. His head is shown as looking like a very large octopus, with many tentacles surrounding what appears to be its mouth.
Publication history
The short story "The Call of Cthulhu," which first introduces the character Cthulhu, was published in Weird Tales in 1928. This story describes Cthulhu as an evil being resting in a hidden underwater city called R'lyeh, located in the South Pacific. The story suggests that Cthulhu causes a deep, unspoken fear in all humans and is worshipped by several human cults, including those in New Zealand, Greenland, Louisiana, and the Chinese mountains. Other creatures from Lovecraft’s stories, such as the Deep Ones and Mi-Go, also revere Cthulhu. The story explains that although Cthulhu is currently trapped, he will one day return. His followers repeat a chant: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn," which means "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."
H.P. Lovecraft created a detailed family tree for Cthulhu, which was later published as "Letter 617" in Selected Letters. He also included Cthulhu in other stories, such as "The Dunwich Horror" (1928) and The Whisperer in Darkness (1930). In At the Mountains of Madness (1931), Lovecraft refers to the "star-spawn of Cthulhu," a group that fought with another ancient race called the Elder Things before humans existed.
August Derleth, a friend of Lovecraft, used the name Cthulhu to describe the system of stories and ideas developed by Lovecraft and others, known as the Cthulhu Mythos. In 1937, Derleth wrote a story called "The Return of Hastur" and introduced two groups of cosmic beings: the Elder Gods, who represent good, and other beings, who represent evil. These evil beings are divided into groups, such as the Water Beings, the Air Beings, and the Earth Beings. According to Derleth, Cthulhu is a Water Being and an ancient enemy of Hastur, called "the Unspeakable." Derleth wrote several stories about the conflict between humans and Cthulhu, which were published in Weird Tales from 1944 to 1952 and collected in The Trail of Cthulhu. Cthulhu also appears in Derleth’s 1945 novel The Lurker at the Threshold, published by Arkham House. This novel was later included in a collection titled The Watchers Out of Time and Others.
Some people, like Michel Houellebecq, have criticized Derleth’s ideas. Houellebecq wrote in his book H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (2005) that Derleth changed Lovecraft’s stories by adding a clear battle between good and evil, which Lovecraft did not include.
In John Glasby’s story "A Shadow from the Aeons," the narrator sees Cthulhu walking near a riverbank outside a castle and hears him roar.
Cthulhu’s influence spread beyond literature. In 1980, the game company TSR included a chapter about the Cthulhu Mythos, including details about characters, in the Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook Deities & Demigods. However, Arkham House, which owned the rights to most Lovecraft stories, had already given the Cthulhu name to another game company, Chaosium. Chaosium allowed TSR to use the material only if they credited Chaosium in each edition. TSR refused, and the Cthulhu-related content was later removed from all future editions of the book.
Influence
Cthulhu has been used as a funny or fake candidate in several elections, such as the 2010 Polish presidential election and the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential elections. These fake campaigns often make fun of people who say they are voting for the "lesser evil," meaning they choose the better of two bad options. During the 2016 U.S. election, a group called "Cthulhu for America" ran as a satirical candidate, similar to other fake candidates like Vermin Supreme. The group's pretend platform included ideas like legalizing human sacrifice, making all Americans go crazy, and ending peace.
Many living things have been named after Cthulhu. These include a spider in California called Pimoa cthulhu, a moth in New Guinea named Speiredonia cthulhui, and a fossil sea creature called Sollasina cthulhu. Two tiny organisms that help termites break down wood were also named after Cthulhu and his "daughter" Cthylla: Cthulhu macrofasciculumque and Cthylla microfasciculumque.
In 2014, a science and technology expert named Donna Haraway gave a talk titled "Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene: Staying with the Trouble." In this talk, she suggested the term "Chthulucene" as a new way to describe the "Anthropocene era," which refers to a time when humans have a major impact on Earth. Haraway said her use of "Chthulucene" comes from the Greek word "khthonios," meaning "of the earth." However, her description of the term matches the idea of Cthulhu from the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, who imagined Cthulhu as a terrifying, many-tentacled creature that could destroy civilization.
In July 2015, a long, dark area near Pluto's equator, first called "the Whale," was proposed to be named "Cthulhu Regio" by the NASA team working on the New Horizons mission. The team later changed the name to "Cthulhu Macula" because they believed the feature was a type of dark spot. The International Astronomical Union did not accept the name, and the feature was officially named "Belton Regio" in 2023.