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The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythopoeia and a shared fictional universe, originating in

the works of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term was coined by August
Derleth, a contemporary correspondent and protégé of Lovecraft, to identify the
settings, tropes, and lore that were employed by Lovecraft and his literary
successors. The name "Cthulhu" derives from the central creature in Lovecraft's
seminal short story "The Call of Cthulhu", first published in the pulp magazine
Weird Tales in 1928.[1]
A sketch of Cthulhu drawn by Lovecraft, May 11, 1934

Richard L. Tierney, a writer who also wrote Mythos tales, later applied the term
"Derleth Mythos" to distinguish Lovecraft's works from Derleth's later stories,
which modify key tenets of the Mythos.[2][3] Authors of Lovecraftian horror in
particular frequently use elements of the Cthulhu Mythos.[4]: 
viii–ix 
HistoryEdit
A June 1934 photograph of H. P. Lovecraft, facing left
H. P. Lovecraft, the creator of the Cthulhu Mythos

In his essay "H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos", Robert M. Price described
two stages in the development of the Cthulhu Mythos. Price called the first stage
the "Cthulhu Mythos proper". This stage was formulated during Lovecraft's lifetime
and was subject to his guidance. The second stage was guided by August Derleth who,
in addition to publishing Lovecraft's stories after his death, attempted to
categorize and expand the Mythos.[5]: 
8 [6]: 
5 
First stageEdit

An ongoing theme in Lovecraft's work is the complete irrelevance of mankind in the

face of the cosmic horrors that apparently exist in the universe. Lovecraft made
frequent references to the "Great Old Ones", a loose pantheon of ancient, powerful
deities from space who once ruled the Earth and have since fallen into a deathlike
sleep.[4]: 
viii  While these monstrous deities were present in almost all of
Lovecraft's published work (his second short story "Dagon", published in 1919, is
considered the start of the Mythos), the first story to really expand the pantheon
of Great Old Ones and its themes is "The Call of Cthulhu", which was published in
1928.

Lovecraft broke with other pulp writers of the time by having his main characters'
minds deteriorate when afforded a glimpse of what exists outside their perceived
reality. He emphasized the point by stating in the opening sentence of the story
that "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human
mind to correlate all its contents."[7]

Writer Dirk W. Mosig noted that Lovecraft was a "mechanistic materialist" who
embraced the philosophy of cosmic indifferentism and believed in a purposeless,
mechanical, and uncaring universe. Human beings, with their limited faculties, can
never fully understand this universe, and the cognitive dissonance caused by this
revelation leads to insanity, in his view.[8][9]

There have been attempts at categorizing this fictional group of beings. Phillip A.
Schreffler argues that by carefully scrutinizing Lovecraft's writings, a workable
framework emerges that outlines the entire "pantheon"—from the unreachable "Outer
Ones" (e.g., Azathoth, who occupies the centre of the universe) and "Great Old
Ones" (e.g., Cthulhu, imprisoned on Earth in the sunken city of R'lyeh) to the
lesser castes (the lowly slave shoggoths and the Mi-Go).[10]

David E. Schultz said Lovecraft never meant to create a canonical Mythos but rather
intended his imaginary pantheon to serve merely as a background element.[11]: 
46, 54 
Lovecraft himself humorously referred to his Mythos as "Yog Sothothery" (Dirk W.
Mosig coincidentally suggested the term Yog-Sothoth Cycle of Myth be substituted
for Cthulhu Mythos).[12][13] At times, Lovecraft even had to remind his readers
that his Mythos creations were entirely fictional.[9]: 
33–34 

The view that there was no rigid structure is expounded upon by S. T. Joshi, who
said

"Lovecraft's imaginary cosmogony was never a static system but rather a sort of
aesthetic construct that remained ever adaptable to its creator's developing
personality and altering interests…. There was never a rigid system that might be
posthumously appropriated.…. The essence of the mythos lies not in a pantheon of
imaginary deities nor in a cobwebby collection of forgotten tomes, but rather in a
certain convincing cosmic attitude."[14]

Price said Lovecraft's writings could at least be divided into categories and
identified three distinct themes: the "Dunsanian" (written in a similar style as
Lord Dunsany), "Arkham" (occurring in Lovecraft's fictionalized New England
setting), and "Cthulhu" (the cosmic tales) cycles.[6]: 
9  Writer Will Murray noted
that while Lovecraft often used his fictional pantheon in the stories he ghostwrote
for other authors, he reserved Arkham and its environs exclusively for those tales
he wrote under his own name.[15]

Although the Mythos was not formalized or acknowledged between them, Lovecraft did
correspond and share story elements with other contemporary writers including Clark
Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, Henry Kuttner,
Henry S. Whitehead, and Fritz Leiber—a group referred to as the "Lovecraft
Circle."[16][page needed][17][page needed]

For example, Robert E. Howard's character Friedrich Von Junzt reads Lovecraft's
Necronomicon in the short story "The Children of the Night" (1931), and in turn
Lovecraft mentions Howard's Unaussprechlichen Kulten in the stories "Out of the
Aeons" (1935) and "The Shadow Out of Time" (1936).[6]: 
6–7  Many of Howard's
original unedited Conan stories also involve parts of the Cthulhu Mythos.[18]
Second stageEdit

Price denotes the second stage's commencement with August Derleth, with the
principal difference between Lovecraft and Derleth being Derleth's use of hope and
development of the idea that the Cthulhu Mythos essentially represented a struggle
between good and evil.[5]: 
9  Derleth is credited with creating the "Elder Gods". He
stated:

As Lovecraft conceived the deities or forces of his mythos, there were,

initially, the Elder Gods…. These Elder Gods were benign deities, representing the
forces of good, and existed peacefully…very rarely stirring forth to intervene in
the unceasing struggle between the powers of evil and the races of Earth. These
powers of evil were variously known as the Great Old Ones or the Ancient Ones....
[19]

Price said the basis for Derleth's system is found in Lovecraft: "Was Derleth's use
of the rubric 'Elder Gods' so alien to Lovecraft's in At the Mountains of Madness?
Perhaps not. In fact, this very story, along with some hints from "The Shadow over
Innsmouth", provides the key to the origin of the 'Derleth Mythos'. For in At the
Mountains of Madness is shown the history of a conflict between interstellar races,
first among them the Elder Ones and the Cthulhu-spawn.[20]

Derleth said Lovecraft wished for other authors to actively write about the Mythos
as opposed to it being a discrete plot device within Lovecraft's own stories.[11]: 
46–47  Derleth expanded the boundaries of the Mythos by including any passing
reference to another author's story elements by Lovecraft as part of the genre.
Just as Lovecraft made passing reference to Clark Ashton Smith's Book of Eibon,
Derleth in turn added Smith's Ubbo-Sathla to the Mythos.[6]: 9–10 

Derleth also attempted to connect the deities of the Mythos to the four elements
("air", "earth", "fire", and "water"), creating new beings representative of
certain elements in order to legitimize his system of classification. He created
"Cthugha" as a sort of fire elemental when a fan, Francis Towner Laney, complained
that he had neglected to include the element in his schema. Laney, the editor of
The Acolyte, had categorized the Mythos in an essay that first appeared in the
Winter 1942 issue of the magazine.

Impressed by the glossary, Derleth asked Laney to rewrite it for publication in the
Arkham House collection Beyond the Wall of Sleep (1943).[21] Laney's essay ("The
Cthulhu Mythos") was later republished in Crypt of Cthulhu #32 (1985). In applying
the elemental theory to beings that function on a cosmic scale (e.g., Yog-Sothoth)
some authors created a fifth element that they termed aethyr.[citation needed]
Derleth's elemental classifications
Air Earth Fire Water
Hastur
Ithaqua*
Nyarlathotep
Zhar and Lloigor* Cyäegha
Nyogtha
Shub-Niggurath
Tsathoggua Aphoom-Zhah
Cthugha*
Yig Cthulhu
Dagon
Ghatanothoa
Mother Hydra
Zoth-Ommog
* Deity created by Derleth
Fictional cultsEdit

A number of fictional cults appear in the Cthulhu Mythos, the loosely connected
series of horror stories written by H. P. Lovecraft and other writers inspired by
his creations. Many of these cults serve the Outer God Nyarlathotep, the Crawling
Chaos, a protean creature that appears in myriad guises. Other cults are dedicated
to the cause of the Great Old Ones, a group of powerful alien beings currently
imprisoned or otherwise resting in a deathlike sleep.[citation needed]
See also
References
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Last edited 1 month ago by Treetoes023
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