Cthulu



Drawing by H.P. Lovecraft



Cthulhu is a fictional creature created by noted horror author H. P. Lovecraft. It first appeared in his short story Call of Cthulhu which appeared in Weird Tales 11, No. 2, published in February of 1928.

Cthulhu is one of many of Lovecraft’s creations but is probably his most popular. It is described in Call of Cthulhu as follows:

“Above these apparent hieroglyphics was a figure of evidently pictorial intent, though its impressionistic execution forbade a very clear idea of its nature. 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, a dragon, 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 rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful. Behind the figure was a vague suggestion of a Cyclopean architectural background.”

While it may be a fictional creature, one cannot deny that Cthulhu is an iconic symbol of all that is evil.

H.P. Lovecraft

That is not dead which can eternal lie

And with strange aeons even death may die