Interpretatio Cthulhiana - Deities

Basic Information

See Interpretatio Cthulhiana for more details. See Interpretatio Cthulhiana - Creatures for the list of lesser species in the Cthulhu Mythos.

This page lists the various deities and greater entities of the Cthulhu Mythos - the Elder Gods, Great Old Ones, Great Ones, and Outer Gods - as well as their associations from real world mythology and folklore. See the List of Mythologies, Mythological Characters, and Mythological Creatures for possibilities.

Elder Gods

• Bast:
  • Egyptian Mythology - is already a member of the Egyptian pantheon.
• Hypnos:
  • Greek Mythology - is already a member of the Greek pantheon.
• Kthanid:
• Nodens (Cthulhu Mythos):
  • Celtic Mythology: Nodens of the Cthulhu Mythos is based on the Celtic deity of the same name.
  • Greek Mythology: Poseidon (Neptune in Roman Mythology) is also a sea deity with a similar outlook.
  • Norse Mythology: Odin might be another fit. Both have spears and are fatherly types. Furthermore, Nodens is "The Great Lord of the Abyss", and who knows into what abysses Odin has looked in his search for knowledge.
• N'tse-Kaambl:
  • Greek Mythology: Athena
• Ulthar:
• Vorvadoss:
• Yad-Thaddag:
  • More or less the same possibilities as Yog-Sothoth apply, since Yad is said to be Yog's twin. Zurvan of the Zurvanite form of Zoroastrianism and Chronos of some offshoots of Greek myth are especially good fits.

Great Old Ones

• Aphoom-Zhah:
• Arwassa:
• Atlach-Nacha:
  • Egyptian Mythology - Neith (in her aspect as goddess of weaving & weaver of the world)
• Baoht Z'uqqa-Mogg:
• Basatan:
• Bokrug:
  • Egyptian Mythology - The 'water-lizard' Bokrug might be associated with Sebek the crocodile god.
• Bugg-Shash:
• Byatis:
• Chaugnar Faugn:
  • Hindu Mythology - Ganesha is another elephant-headed deity.
• Cthugha:
• Cthulhu:
  • Norse legend - the Kraken might well be a twisted memory of Cthulhu. Giant squidlike creature dwelling in the deep, which will rise at the end of the world?
• Cthylla:
• Cxaxukluth:
• Cyäegha:
• Cynothoglys:
• The Dweller in the Gulf:
• Eihort:
• Father Dagon and Mother Hydra:
  • Semitic Mythology - Dagon was a major god of the Philistines
  • Greek Mythology: The Hydra is a multiheaded creature that was defeated by Heracles. Since Mother Hydra is sometimes explained as "merely" an extremely old Deep One, it's possible she (or a close family member) was actually defeated (or at least driven off) by some ancient warrior, giving birth to the myth.
• Ghadamon:
• Ghatanothoa:
  • Greek Mythology: The Gorgons turn those who look upon them to stone, just as Ghatanothoa does. Perhaps they are anthropomorphized forms of it? After all, the earliest Greek myths mention only a single Gorgon, not the classical three.
• Ghisguth:
• Glaaki:
• Gloon:
• Gol-goroth:
• Hastur:
  • Greek Mythology: Dionysus might be a guise of Hastur, especially if one emphasizes the aspects of decadence and madness. Furthermore, Dionysus was also a patron of the theatre. Is it a coincidence that one of the primary treatises of the cult of Hastur is a play ("The King in Yellow")? I think not!
• Hziulquoigmnzhah:
• Idh-yaa:
• Iod:
• Ithaqua:
  • Anishinaabe traditional beliefs - Ithaqua is strongly associated with the wendigo, cannibal spirits of the North.
• Juk-Shabb:
• Kassogtha:
• Lloigor:
• M'Nagalah the Eternal:
• Mnomquah:
• Mordiggian:
  • Egyptian Mythology: Ammut, eater of the unrighteous dead, might parallel Mordiggian, corpse-eating god.
• Nug and Yeb:
• Nyogtha:
• Oorn:
• Othuum:
• Othuyeg:
• Quachil Uttaus:
• Q'yth-az:
• Rh'Thulla of the Wind:
• Rhan-Tegoth:
• Rhogog:
• Rlim Shaikorth:
  • R'lim Shaikorth's glacial aspect could tie him to the jotuns/frost-giants of Norse Mythology.
• Saa'itii:
• Sfatlicllp:
• Shathak:
• Shudde M'ell:
  • Shudde M'ell, the great wormlike monster of the depths of the Earth, can be compared to Niddhogg from Norse Mythology, the dragon which gnaws at the roots of the World Tree.
• Summanus:
  • Roman Mythology: Summanus is taken from the Roman god of the same name.
• Tsathoggua:
  • Classical Mythology: Tsathoggua hails from Cykranosh, supposedly the Hyperborean name for the planet Saturn. So what comes from the mythological Saturn? Well, there's all his kids, the gods of Olympus. Tsathoggua might be one of them, or one of the Titans they deposed.
• Vulthoom:
• The Worm that Gnaws in the Night:
• X'chll'at-aa:
• Y'golonac:
  • Y'golonac could be presented as a particularly degenerate aspect of Dionysus.
• Yhoundeh:
  • Greek Mythology: As goddess of the hunt and the wild, Artemis had authority over deer. Perhaps she is a garbled version of the Hyperborean elk-goddess?
• Yibb-Tstll:
• Yig:
  • Aztec mythology - Quetzalcoatl might be a possible guise of Yig.
  • Egyptian Mythology - Set is a classical "serpent deity".
  • Greek Mythology - Chronos, the personification of Time, is described as "serpentine".
• Ythogtha:
• Zathog:
• Zhar and Lloigor:
• Zoth-Ommog:
• Zstylzhemghi:
• Zystulzhemgni:
• Zushako:
• Zvilpogghua:

Great Ones

• Hagarg Ryonis:
• Karakal:
• Lobon:
• Nath-Horthath:
• Oukranos:
• Tamash:
• Zo-Kalar:

Outer Gods

• Abhoth:
• Azathoth:
  • Gnosticism: The Gnostic Demiurge which created the material world, sometimes called the "blind god", is quite parallel to Azathoth, blind idiot god that created the universe.
• Daoloth:
• Ghroth:
• The Hydra:
  • Greek Mythology: The Hydra is a multiheaded creature that was defeated by Heracles. Certainly a human is unlikely to actually slay an Outer God, but this may be some sort of coded myth that explains a ritual for protection from the Outer God.
  • Classical Mythology: Some lists of the Outer Gods refer to Hydra and Mormo as the same entity. Mormo is an existing boogeyman-type figure in Greek Mythology. Mormo is also a poorly understood occult figure from the religious practices of certain Mystery Cults in Ancient Rome (and thus presumably Roman Mythology, who invoked Mormo along with Hecate and the Gorgons. See the Mormo page for more information.
• Lesser Outer Gods:
• The Nameless Mist:
• Nyarlathotep:
  • Classical Mythology: As the messenger of the outer gods, Nyarlathotep may be the shadow-self of Mercury or Hermes. See also Hermanubis.
  • Egyptian Mythology: Thoth is said to be heart and tongue of Ra - Nyarlathotep is said to have a similar relationship with Azathoth. Lovecraft said Nyarlathotep came out of Egypt, was of the "old native blood", and looked like a Pharoah.
  • Witchcraft and Folklore: Clearly associated with Christian folk-tradition depictions of The Devil, especially in regards to the Salem Witch Trials.
• Shub-Niggurath:
  • Greek Mythology: Dionysus cults might worship her in disguise, especially if they emphasize the fertility aspects.
  • Roman Mythology: Cybele was associated with her by Lovecraft himself.
  • Greek Mythology: Hecate - on several occasions the Dark Mother is invoked as "Gorgo, Mormo, Dark Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young" … possibly the Hecate connection is via the symbolism of the thousand faced moon.
• Ubbo-Sathla:
  • Gaia from Greek Mythology, or any earth-mother goddess from any other mythology. Ubbo-Sathla gave birth to the ancestors of all earthly life.
• Yidhra:
• Yog-Sothoth:
  • Greek Mythology: Hecate - she is associated with borders and doorways (gates?), and her presence is heralded by the barking of dogs - and the dogs went wild in "The Dunwich Horror" when the sons of Yog-Sothoth got near them!
  • Greek Mythology: Zeus - he is also prone to fathering children with mortal women, and when Semele (the mother of Dionysus) demanded that he appear before her in his true form, she was burned to ashes because mortals cannot survive looking upon the undisguised appearance of gods. Of course, this makes one wonder about all those demigods fathered by Zeus, starting with Heracles…
  • In certain philosophical offshoots of Greek myth (such as the Pentemychos), Chronos (Time) becomes a primordial deity.
  • Roman-mythology: Portunes … keys? Gates? Doorways? Check…
  • Yahweh - It might be that the entity appearing to Moses on the Biblical Mount Sinai was actually an avatar of Yog-Sothoth. If true, this entity might still be trapped there.
  • Zurvanism - In this offshoot of Zoroastrianism, Zurvan is seen as a primordial deity of time, space, and fate. This entity also appears in Theosophy, as well as Manichaeism and Sogdian Buddhism.

Sources

Bibliography

1. Elder God (Cthulhu Mythos) Wikipedia entry

2. Great Old One Wikipedia entry

3. Dreamlands Wikipedia entry

4. Outer God Wikipedia entry

5. Celestial Bodies of the Cthulhu Mythos Wikipedia entry