Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic being 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 figure among other cosmic entities. He is described as a massive creature with a green, human-like body that has features similar to an octopus and a dragon. People in the story worship him as a god. Cthulhu is the namesake of the Cthulhu Mythos, a collection of stories inspired by Lovecraft's work. Since its creation, Cthulhu has appeared in many 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 word chthonic, which means "of the earth" in Ancient Greek. Lovecraft explained this connection in his 1923 story "The Rats in the Walls." The idea of chthonic spirits, which live underground and guard treasures, appears in many ancient and medieval myths. Examples include Germanic dwarfs and Greek groups like the Chalybes, Telchines, and Dactyls.

Lovecraft wrote that Cthulhu should be pronounced "Khlûl′-hloo." He described the first syllable as being said in a deep, throaty way, similar to the sound of "klul." The "u" is like the "u" in "full." This pronunciation is close to /ˈq(χ)lʊlˌɬuː/. However, Lovecraft gave different pronunciations at different times. He explained that these attempts are the best humans can do to copy sounds from an alien language. 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 their Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. They noted that Lovecraft had a different pronunciation. Some people use "kuh-TUUL-hu" (/kəˈtuːluː/) instead.

Description

In "The Call of Cthulhu," H. P. Lovecraft describes a statue of Cthulhu as: "A monster with a human-like shape, but with an octopus-like head covered in feelers, a scaly, rubbery body, huge claws on its front and back legs, and long, narrow wings on its back." A carving of Cthulhu is described as: "It looked like a creature or a symbol of a creature that only someone with strange, wild ideas 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 close to describing it. It had a soft, tentacled head above a strange, scaly body with small wings."

Johansen in "The Call of Cthulhu" says, "The Thing cannot be described—there are no words for such deep, terrible sounds and ancient madness, such strange, impossible things that break all rules of the universe. A mountain walked or stumbled." Cthulhu is later described as a "huge, monstrous creature." His age is said to be at least "trillions of trillions of years." It is also mentioned that he used magic to keep the Great Old Ones safe until they return.

Cthulhu is described as hundreds of meters tall, with arms and legs that look like human arms and legs but have webbing. His head is shown as similar to a giant octopus, with many tentacles surrounding what might be his 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 sleeping in R'lyeh, an underwater city in the South Pacific. The story suggests that Cthulhu causes a deep, hidden fear in all humans and is worshipped by human groups in places like New Zealand, Greenland, Louisiana, and the Chinese mountains. It is also worshipped by other creatures from Lovecraft’s stories, such as the Deep Ones and Mi-Go. The story explains that Cthulhu is currently trapped but will one day return. His followers repeat a chant: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" ("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. Cthulhu is a major character in many of Lovecraft’s works. For example, the story "The Dunwich Horror" (1928) mentions Cthulhu, and The Whisperer in Darkness (1930) hints that a character knows Cthulhu’s origins. In At the Mountains of Madness (1931), Lovecraft refers to the "star-spawn of Cthulhu," a group that fought another 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 created by Lovecraft and his followers, called the Cthulhu Mythos. In 1937, Derleth wrote a story titled "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 connected to elements like water, air, and earth. According to Derleth, Cthulhu is a water being and an enemy of Hastur the Unspeakable, who is called Cthulhu’s "half-brother."

Derleth wrote many stories about Cthulhu, which were published in Weird Tales between 1944 and 1952. These stories were later collected in a book called The Trail of Cthulhu. His 1945 novel The Lurker at the Threshold also includes Cthulhu. This book was later included in a collection titled The Watchers Out of Time and Others, published by Arkham House in 1974.

Some people, like Michel Houellebecq, have criticized Derleth’s ideas. Houellebecq wrote that Derleth changed Lovecraft’s stories by adding a simple 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 castle and roaring.

Cthulhu’s influence also reached games. In 1980, the company TSR included a chapter about the Cthulhu Mythos, including details about characters, in the Dungeons & Dragons book Deities & Demigods. However, TSR did not know that Arkham House, which owns the rights to most Lovecraft stories, had already given the Cthulhu story rights to Chaosium. Chaosium asked TSR to credit them in future editions, but TSR refused. As a result, the Cthulhu-related material was removed from later versions of the book.

Influence

Cthulhu has been used as a mock 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 voters who say they will vote for the "lesser evil." 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 claimed to support ideas such as legalizing human sacrifice, making all Americans go mad, 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 called Speiredonia cthulhui, and a fossilized sea creature called Sollasina cthulhu. Two tiny organisms that help termites break down wood were also named after Cthulhu and a creature called Cthylla: Cthulhu macrofasciculumque and Cthylla microfasciculumque.

In 2014, a scientist named Donna Haraway gave a speech titled "Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene: Staying with the Trouble." She suggested using the term "Chthulucene" as an alternative to "Anthropocene," which describes the current geological era. Haraway said her term comes from the Greek word khthonios, meaning "of the earth." However, the idea of "Chthulucene" is similar to the description of the Lovecraft character Cthulhu, which includes a terrifying, many-tentacled being that threatens to destroy civilization.

In July 2015, a long, dark area near Pluto’s equator, first called "the Whale," was informally named "Cthulhu Regio" by scientists on the New Horizons mission. Later that year, the name was changed to "Cthulhu Macula" because the feature was classified as a type of dark spot. The International Astronomical Union did not accept the name, and the feature was officially named "Belton Regio" in 2023.