Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to discuss Cthulhu:
a behemoth monster from far-flung space,
a creature that has lived on earth for millions of years, a sight so overwhelming and
incomprehensible to the human mind that one looks shatters sanity and binds the shards with madness.
We’re going to start off by taking a look at Cthulhu’s family tree,
something that Lovecraft delineated in one of his letters. Following that, we’re going to look at
some supplemental info given by Cthulhu’s entry in The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia, and finally we’re
going to spend most of the video going through what can be gleaned from ‘The Call of Cthulhu’,
the story written by Lovecraft in which Cthulhu, the eponymous monster, most prominently features.
Let’s get into it.
As we can see from the photo, the genealogy begins with Azathoth, and after him is the Nameless Mist,
Darkness, Yog-sothoth, and Shub-Niggurath. These five entities are all Outer Gods, and though we’re
going to gloss over them right now, if people are interested in more Cthulhu Mythos content
in the future, we’ll definitely make more videos covering them. Little is known of Nug and Yeb,
the spawn of Yog-sothoth and Shub-Niggurath, but they seem to be far less powerful than their
forebears, a fact made plain by them not being counted among the outer gods. Similarly, Cthulhu,
born to Nug, is also not classified as an Outer God; as we’ll see, he’s one of the Great Old Ones,
an incredibly powerful category of being in Lovecraftian Lore, but still certainly outclassed
by Outer God entities, which are monstrous cosmic forces that transcend time and space.
Here’s a passage from ‘The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia’ that explains how Cthulhu
travelled to earth and on what his time there was like before the emergence of Humanity:
“Records of Cthulhu’s origins are fragmentary, but it seems that he originated on the world of Vhoorl
in the twenty-third nebula. He later travelled to the green double star of Xoth, where he mated with
a creature named Idh-yaa to produce the Great Old Ones Ghatanothoa, Ythogtha, and Zoth-Ommog.
From here, Cthulhu, his children, and a species known as the star-spawn flew to Saturn,
descending to Earth from there. Upon their arrival, Cthulhu and his retinue took up residence
on a continent in the Pacific Ocean, on which they built the great stone city of R’lyeh. At first,
Cthulhu’s spawn encountered resistance from the Elder Things, who had dwelt on the earth
for millions of years before Cthulhu’s coming. Following a war in which Cthulhu’s spawn destroyed
all of the Elder Things’ land cities, the two species declared peace and agreed not to interfere
with each other. Following this arrangement, Cthulhu enjoyed many years of Freedom.”
Now we’re going to transition to ‘The Call of Cthulhu’,
which we’ll focus on for the remainder of the video.
Cthulhu is one of the Great Old Ones, a group of monsters that originated from some black recess
of the universe. He’s existed for years beyond count, eventually travelling forth from distant
stars and arriving on primordial earth when our sun was yet young. He and his ilk held
dominion over the earth for years uncounted, but then something unknown happened, something
beyond human comprehension in the vastness of space; the stars changed, and with that change
the Great Old Ones became dormant. They entered a dark hibernation, almost as if death had claimed
them - all of them sustained by spells that both maintained them in a sort of vitality preserving
stasis and confined them to the great stone chambers in which they dwelt. Though this most
unnatural slumber incapacitated them, their minds were very much left untouched, still potent beyond
the feeble limitations of mortal imaginings. Far sight, near-omniscience, even, remained to them,
as did their powers of telepathy, sending visions to people in their dreams. At the
height of the Great Old Ones’ power, when their supremacy was at its zenith, they built a city,
singular in its enormity, of cyclopean stones and dominated by massive monoliths that stabbed
upwards and disappeared into the sky. This city, called R’lyeh, is where Cthulhu became entombed,
and is where he waits dreaming, but this city no longer sprawls along the surface of the earth,
now sunk beneath the crushing depths of the sea - perhaps the result of some ancient cataclysm
or perhaps the gradual result of millions of years of climate and tectonic change.
The specifics aren’t revealed. Prior to the city plunging into the ocean,
the Great Old Ones slept for years uncounted, and during this time,
life took root; and millions of years of evolution rolled on by. In the earliest days of humanity,
primitive minds were infiltrated by the telepathic tendrils sent by the mighty masters who ruled in
ages long forgotten. They extended their will from unholy fortresses in R’lyeh, charnel cathedrals
that served almost like mausoleums while they slept, and they watched, imposing their will
from their remote dwellings. This is how the first cults dedicated to the Great Old Ones were formed.
Here’s a passage that tells of this ancient history:
“They worshiped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men,
and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old ones were gone now, inside the earth
and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men,
who formed a cult which had never died. This was that cult, and the prisoners said it had
always existed and always would exist, hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over the world
until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R’lyeh
under the waters, should rise and bring the earth again beneath his sway. Some day he would call,
when the stars were ready, and the secret cult would always be waiting to liberate him.
Meanwhile no more must be told. There was a secret which even torture could not extract. Mankind was
not absolutely alone among the conscious things of earth, for shapes came out of the dark to visit
the faithful few. But these were not the Great Old Ones. No man had ever seen the Old Ones, [for they
already slept when the first men walked] … No one could read the old writing now, but things were
told by word of mouth. The chanted ritual was not the secret - that was never spoken aloud,
only whispered. The chant meant only this: “In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”
Though the Great Old Ones had corporeal form, they weren’t composed of matter,
but of another substance or material unknown to reality insofar as it pertained to humanity.
They lie in houses of stone, like huge and horrific sepulchers, in R’lyeh. It is by the
spells of Cthulhu that they are maintained, made impervious to time unending. Working against them,
though, was a secondary, inhibiting effect of the magic cast upon them; they were prevented
from bringing themselves back, so in addition to the stars needing to be properly aligned,
resurrection also required outside assistance, hence the cults. Without thralls to serve them,
doing their bidding when the time came, sleep eternal, forever conscious in darkness,
was all that awaited the Great Old ones in all the years of infinity.
To help spread their influence and strengthen their cult,
the Great Old ones distributed Idols. How many there are isn’t disclosed,
but the one discussed is a small figurine of green-black stone flecked with gold,
carved in the likeness of Cthulhu, the great priest. Here’s its description from the story:
“No recognized school of sculpture had animated this terrible object, yet centuries and even
thousands of years seemed recorded in its dim and greenish surface of unplaceable stone … between
seven and eight inches in height … It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline,
but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body,
prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which
seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence,
and squatted evilly on a rectangular block or pedestal covered with undecipherable characters.”
It is said that the cult will endure, perpetuating from one generation to the next until the stars
once again prime the Cosmos for the return of earth’s dormant lords. When this time is once
again upon us, the secret priests will come to Cthulhu and deliver him from his place of rest.
Their actions will be like the tumbling stone that brings down the mountain side
or the ember that sets a forest ablaze, for Cthulhu, the great priest, will rise again;
and through him, the other Great Old Ones will be brought back and their rule reestablished.
Under them, our moral framework, the sense of right and wrong that underpins our society,
will dissolve. In thought we will come to resemble the Great Old Ones themselves,
beings whose motives we do not understand and who are not bound by laws, edicts, norms, scruples, or
such pedestrian concepts like virtue and vice, for which they have nothing but disdain and contempt.
Cities will burn, institutions crumble, and the matrix that keeps everything together,
that allowed us to create a global civilization, will utterly disintegrate. Rising from this
ruin will be the unrestrained rapture of self-destruction, indulging in every pleasure,
disregarding all limitations, absolute degeneration into lustful, charnel chaos.
In years long since past, the Great Old Ones would communicate directly with chosen disciples
by transmitting visions to them in their dreams,
but this ceased when the city of R’lyeh slid into the sea. Since that time, the priests,
though no longer linked through dreams, kept belief strong, promising that the city
of R’lyeh would rise again and that their masters would once again walk the earth.
And their promises do bear out when, in the early 20th century,
an earthquake partially and temporarily raises R’lyeh from its watery grave,
the part in which Cthulhu is entombed. With Kilometers of water no longer acting as a psychic
barrier, Cthulhu’s thought projection ceases to be stifled. He infiltrates dreams once again,
turning mental institutions and psych-wards into true madhouses, preying on the psychically
sensitive, and exciting cult groups to levels of zeal and Frenzy not seen in living memory.
A boat, to the great misfortune of the crew, docks beside the small piece of R’lyeh that’s
exposed above water by the earthquake, the tip of a mountainous monolith surmounted by the citadel
in which Cthulhu resides. The crew disembarks, and they explore the bewildering landscape - an
acropolis built of behemoth boulders coated in green slime. They make their way to the top where
they encounter a gargantuan door carved with the squid-dragon likeness of he who awaits inside.
The door opens, and Cthulhu emerges. Here’s the description:
“It lumbered slobberingly into sight and gropingly squeezed its gelatinous green immensity
through the black doorway … two [of the crew] perished of pure fright
in that accursed instant. There is no language for such abysms of shrieking
and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch contradictions of all matter,
force, and cosmic order. A mountain walked or stumbled … great Cthulhu was loose again,
and ravening for delight. Three men were swept up by the flabby claws before anybody turned.”
What’s left of the crew is pursued back to their boat, then the boat is pursued across the water,
and the mere sight of Cthulhu’s titan bulk swimming behind instantly drives
one of the only remaining survivors mad. In a half-crazed gamble to buy more time until the
boat’s steam reaches maximum output, the boat is set on a collision course with Cthulhu’s head.
There is a pulpy, gelatinous burst where the bow pierces Cthulhu’s head. The boat escapes,
having bought itself a brief moment by this cavalier course. And Cthluhu, as it turns out,
leaves the exchange unscathed; for immediately after the impact, he begins to rapidly regenerate,
reconstituting himself. Shortly thereafter,
the small part of the exposed city returns to the depths of the sea and Cthulhu with it.
And that’s it for this video!
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