The Cthulhu Mythos
The fictional universe created by HP Lovecraft and his students and followers has come to be known as The Cthulhu Mythos. August Derleth, student and friend of Lovecraft, was the first to use the term. Derleth took the name of the beast Cthulhu (from Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu”) to describe the entire scope of all of Lovecraftian fiction: stories and writings of HP Lovecraft himself and those of his friends, students, and fans.
The mythos created by Lovecraft’s life’s work is a rarity. Many writers have created detailed and fascinating worlds: look at Tolkien’s Middle-earth or the multigenerational stories told in the Star Wars movies. What is rare about the Cthulu Mythos is that it is open to interpretation. Many writers since Lovecraft’s death have taken on the task of writing in Lovecraft’s weird world, and for the most part, the plot points, genesis stories, and detail of these later writers is canonized and accepted by those nearest and dearest to the Mythos. In other words, anyone can play a part in the creation of the world first dreamed up by Lovecraft.
The Cthulhu Mythos is always evolving, but still sticks to the main tenets of Lovecraftian horror and Lovecraftian fiction. Ideally, a new addition to the Mythos should highlight the four common characteristics of Lovecraftian writing: an interest in the cosmic rather than the human, imaginary settings based on reality (like Lovecraft’s fictional New England settings), a lineup of god-like monsters and other entities, and an obsession with the arcane, especially books and texts related to the mythology of those horrible god-like creatures.
There are two major ways to learn about the Cthulhu Mythos: through the books themselves and by studying the stories and creatures that these books introduce. Lovecraft left behind a large number of stories and novellas, but the world he created was anything but complete. As writers and artists fill in the blanks left behind by HP Lovecraft, they redefine and reveal new things about the Cthulhu Mythos, so the process of discovering the creatures and creations of HP Lovecraft is always evolving.
Cthulhu Mythos Creatures
Not just the stories themselves but the monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos have had a big impact on pop culture. Here’s a quick look at some of the most famous Cthulhu creatures.
Cthulhu
The central figure of Lovecraftian horror and the Cthulu Mythos, Cthulhu is the big boss man, described as “a mountain” slumbering at the bottom of the ocean, with terrible features plucked from many different animals, including tentacles, an amorphous blob-like body, and dragon’s wings. Cthulhu is one of the major god-monsters in Lovecraftian horror, known sometimes as The Great Cthulhu. Cthulhu may not be one of the top-tier gods in Lovecraft’s universe, but he is often considered something like the priest of the gods, the spiritual connection between all the mythical forces of the Cthulhu multiverse.
Hastur
Sometimes called Hastur the Unspeakable, Hastur is the half-brother of Cthulhu, and a very powerful creature in his own right. Hastur is more of a demonic entity in the Cthulhu Mythos than a physical presence, usually possessing people and things or being a generally dark presence. Lovecraft borrowed Hastur from earlier writers, including Ambrose Bierce, who wrote of a benign shepherd god named Hastur. Lovecraft pulled this name from his massive memory of books he’d read, and formed an early impression of a being that would become much more crucial to the Mythos after his own death.
Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth
These two beings have been painted by the Mythos as Lovecraft's central deities. Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth are polar opposites, each representing a cosmic presence that defies the other, the classic archetype of a pantheistic tradition. Azathoth is the "blind” ruler of the gods, seated at the center of the universe. Yog-Sothoth is infinite, the force that exists throughout every dimension, in all places at all times.
Cthulhu Mythos Books
Cthulhu Mythos books are generally broken up into two stages to separate the original Cthulhu Mythos stories of HP Lovecraft and the Cthulhu stories of later writers. The second stage begins with August Derleth and the other Lovecraft Circle writers (Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, Henry Kuttner, and Fritz Lieber) who continued to define and illustrate the universe where the Cthulhu Mythos takes place.
A foundation in the Cthulu Mythos texts of HP Lovecraft isn’t required to appreciate the Cthulhu Mythos books of the second stage, but a true Lovecraft fan should want to start with Lovecraft’s own fiction before launching into the rest of the Lovecraftian Mythos horror books.
Many Cthulhu Mythos book collections combine the first stage stories of Lovecraft with the second stage Mythos stories written by later authors. One fine example of a Cthulhu Mythos book that contains first and second-stage stories is Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos published by Del Rey. This collection includes the original “The Call of Cthulhu” by Lovecraft, “Notebook Found in a Deserted House” by Robert Bloch, “Cold Print” by Ramsey Campbell, and other stories based on the Cthulhu Mythos that are sure to satisfy the dark appetites of any HP Lovecraft fan. Collections like these make for an easy in-road to the Mythos, since it contains source material from Lovecraft and more modern writing by the masters of genre fiction you probably already read and like.
The Dream Cycle of HP Lovecraft, also from Del Rey, was first published in 1995, and was the first full collection of Lovecraft’s entire Dream Cycle. Stories collected here are some of the more surreal Lovecraftian horror, from the master himself. This book contains “The Doom That Came to Sarnath,” “The Nameless City,” “The Cats of Ulthar,” and twenty-two other stories, giving you a complete set of dream cycle stories from the original Cthulhu Mythos writer. If you prefer your Cthulhu from Lovecraft’s own pen, this is the Cthulhu Mythos book to ask for on Christmas.
Cthulhu Mythos Stories
There’s a fancy phrase that Lovecraftians throw around like it’s nothing: cognitive dissonance. In an essay on cognitive dissonance in Lovecraft’s fiction, critic Dirk W. Mosig calls HP Lovecraft a "mechanistic materialist," among other things. That just means that he sees human beings and all living creatures as like machines created by accident by a disordered universe. Mosig’s suggestions mean that the Cthulu Mythos is a purposeless one, a universe where different mechanical engines engage with each other meaninglessly. For evidence of the Cthulhu Mythos as an uncaring universe without the possibility of understanding, check out the following Cthulhu Mythos stories that show off the meaning of cognitive dissonance and insanity.
The best and most obvious first choice for a reader interested in Cthulhu Mythos stories is “The Call of Cthulhu” itself. According to Lovecraft scholar Robert Price, Lovecraft was obsessed with an Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem called “The Kraken.” That poem had a big impact; Tennyson’s terrible aquatic monster became Lovecraft’s most famous monster-god, Cthulhu, sleeping for eternity, waiting to destroy humanity. The story introduces Cthulhu in a perfectly paranoid and Lovecraftian way that no fan of horror fiction will soon forget.
For an introduction to more modern Cthulhy Mythos stories, Ramsey Campbell’s collection of Lovecraftian stories Cold Print is both well-written and grounded in Lovecraftian tradition. August Derleth himself published a few of these stories, lending them a direct line back to HP Lovecraft himself. Of particular interest to Cthulhu Mythos fans are the stories “The Horror From the Bridge” and “The Inhabitant of the Lake.” Both use classic Cthulhu Mythos creatures and stories and expand on them in perfect Ramsey Campbell style.
The Cthulhu Mythos is designed for expansion. According to biographer S.T. Joshi, HP Lovecraft never intended to create a complete picture of a mythology. Those writers in his inner-circle and students of his who understood the Cthulhu Mythos better than anyone continued the Cthulhu Mythos tradition, and writers to this very day are working to describe the weird nightmare universe of HP Lovecraft.