Cthulhu

Cthulhu

 

Cthulhu is a fictional monster created by horror writer H.P. Lovecraft that is often depicted as a large cephalopod -like creature with a tentacled mouth, large wings, clawed hands and scaly skin. The correct pronunciation of Cthulhu has long been debated as Lovecroft described that human voice is not capable of pronouncing it. but “KAH-THOO-LOO” or “CHA-THOO-LAH” are commonly used. Some Recent letters to a fan revealed that Lovecroft said if you really want to pronounce it, it should be like Khul - ul - hu. 

 
Cthulhu first appeared in the short story The Call of Cthulhu , which was published in the February, 1928 edition of Weird Tales , a fantasy/ horrific magazine that ran from 1923 to 1954. The monster was inspired by the Alfred Lord Tennyson poem ‘The Kraken’ which is about an enormous squid that rests at the bottom of the sea. In Weird Tales , [2] Cthulhu was established as a malevolent super-natural being trapped in R’lyeh, a fictional underwater city with non-Euclidean architecture. 

In the mythos, the demi-god is described as, “an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature…. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque scaly body with rudimentary wings.” His status is described as “dead, but dreaming” which is reiterated in a message commonly found in the Cthulhu Mythos “ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”, translated as “in his house at R’lyeh sleeping Cthulhu waits dreaming.”