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Atres Artes, v. 1, issue 3, 1946

Page 25

Fantasy Article--SOME DERIVATIONS OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS--BY Geo. Wetzel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What are the source's of the Cthulhu Mythos?

We know that Lovecraft got his inspiration and impetus from Dunsany's work; Dunsany developed his artificial pantheon and place-names by throwing together and synthesizing root-words from classical, oriental, and other sources. The background of Lovecraft's myth-pat-erns, however, are veiled in obscurity. Lovecraft, himself, mention-ed only the derivation of the term, "Miskatonic," which he disclosed as being a jumble of Algonquin roots. Therefore, the only course o-pen to us in examining what parts of Mythos wer can, if by a sys-tem of comparative mythology and the application of comparative etymology.
******

The origin of AZATHOTH is best considered by comparative etymol-ogy. AZATHOTH has its beginning in the Hebrew word, ASHARAH. The ASHARAH was the Hebrew word for a sacred tree which they used to burn sacrifices to a moon-goddess; and so closely was the ASHARAH connected with the worship of this diety that eventually and inevit-ably the Hebrews spoke of ASHARAH as being the moon-goddess. ASHARAH was the singular form of this work; ASHAROTH, the plural. From here it is but a step to AZATHOTH. ASH is similar to AZ, so we may as-sume the word AZAROTH instead of ASHAROTH. Compare the similarity between the Lovecraftian AZATHOTH and the hypothetical AZAROTH. It isn't too far fetched to say that here is the possible, origin-al stimulus for AZATHOTH. As far as the R in one and the TH in the other, the only explanation I can offer is: that the TH is THOTH rendered the word (AZATHOTH) so much more bizzarre, outre, and vauge-ly allied to the classical Egyptian than the R in ROTH, that Love-craft perferred.it.

DAGON actually existed in folklore of a people--the philistines. DAGON to them was a merman-type of God; and Lovecraft utiliged their conception of this admirably. In The Shadow Over Innsmouth, he de-picts the followers of the DAGON cult as acquiring the  "Innsmouth look," obiously indicating that the ichthyic appearance of these peo-ple was suggested by the Philistines's visualization of DAGON.

Another case of Lovecraft's assimulating a thing and developing it into his personal idiom is that of the Book of DZYAN. DZYAN is in all probability an expansion of the adjective DZAN from the dic-tionary, meaning: "That which is to be understood only by the init-iated; esoteric; that kind of doctrine taught secretly." The etym-ological connection between the two words should be quite clear, in as much as they pertain to forebidden knowledge and both the spelling and phonetics are alike.

ITHAQUA-- "The thing that walked on the wind," first used and developed by August Derleth and later adapted in the CTHULHU MYTHOS, is an example of borrowed mythology, though Mr. Derleth may not con-cur with em. A similar mythical figure called Cloud Catcher and Sky Walker exists in the folkelore of the Indians dwelling on the shores of Saginaw bay, Lake Huron, Michigan. Both are supernal beings of the upper air.

Another air elemental is HASTUR. Thoguh invented by Bierce, used by Chambers, and later incorp rated by Derleth as part of the CTHULHU MYTHOS, this word has a derivative origin. HATHOR, the Egyp-tian goddess of song is nearly phonetically identical with HASTUR. Both also were air deities. Nor does the resemblance stop there, for the Egyptian goddess has another counterpart, an alter ego, a per-verse side of her usually tranquil nature, called SEKMET-HATHOR. In that respect she corresponds to the evil CTHULHUIN HASTUR. A less horrifying but kindred likeness is in the fact that HASTUR was orig-inally the god of the sherpards (according to Bierce's delineation) :

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Fantasy Article--SOME DERIVATIONS OF THE CTHULHU MYTHOS--BY Geo. Wetzel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What are the source's of the Cthulhu Mythos? We know that Lovecraft got his inspiration and impetus from Dunsany's work; Dunsany developed his artificial pantheon and place-names by throwing together and synthesizing root-words from classical, oriental, and other sources. The background of Lovecraft's myth-pat-erns, however, are veiled in obscurity. Lovecraft, himself, mention-ed only the derivation of the term, "Miskatonic," which he disclosed as being a jumble of Algonquin roots. Therefore, the only course o-pen to us in examining what parts of Mythos wer can, if by a sys-tem of comparative mythology and the application of comparative etymology. ****** The origin of AZATHOTH is best considered by comparative etymol-ogy. AZATHOTH has its beginning in the Hebrew word, ASHARAH. The ASHARAH was the Hebrew word for a sacred tree which they used to burn sacrifices to a moon-goddess; and so closely was the ASHARAH connected with the worship of this diety that eventually and inevit-ably the Hebrews spoke of ASHARAH as being the moon-goddess. ASHARAH was the singular form of this work; ASHAROTH, the plural. From here it is but a step to AZATHOTH. ASH is similar to AZ, so we may as-sume the word AZAROTH instead of ASHAROTH. Compare the similarity between the Lovecraftian AZATHOTH and the hypothetical AZAROTH. It isn't too far fetched to say that here is the possible, origin-al stimulus for AZATHOTH. As far as the R in one and the TH in the other, the only explanation I can offer is: that the TH is THOTH rendered the word (AZATHOTH) so much more bizzarre, outre, and vauge-ly allied to the classical Egyptian than the R in ROTH, that Love-craft perferred.it. DAGON actually existed in folklore of a people--the philistines. DAGON to them was a merman-type of God; and Lovecraft utiliged their conception of this admirably. In The Shadow Over Innsmouth, he de-picts the followers of the DAGON cult as acquiring the "Innsmouth look," obiously indicating that the ichthyic appearance of these peo-ple was suggested by the Philistines's visualization of DAGON. Another case of Lovecraft's assimulating a thing and developing it into his personal idiom is that of the Book of DZYAN. DZYAN is in all probability an expansion of the adjective DZAN from the dic-tionary, meaning: "That which is to be understood only by the init-iated; esoteric; that kind of doctrine taught secretly." The etym-ological connection between the two words should be quite clear, in as much as they pertain to forebidden knowledge and both the spelling and phonetics are alike. ITHAQUA-- "The thing that walked on the wind," first used and developed by August Derleth and later adapted in the CTHULHU MYTHOS, is an example of borrowed mythology, though Mr. Derleth may not con-cur with em. A similar mythical figure called Cloud Catcher and Sky Walker exists in the folkelore of the Indians dwelling on the shores of Saginaw bay, Lake Huron, Michigan. Both are supernal beings of the upper air. Another air elemental is HASTUR. Thoguh invented by Bierce, used by Chambers, and later incorp rated by Derleth as part of the CTHULHU MYTHOS, this word has a derivative origin. HATHOR, the Egyp-tian goddess of song is nearly phonetically identical with HASTUR. Both also were air deities. Nor does the resemblance stop there, for the Egyptian goddess has another counterpart, an alter ego, a per-verse side of her usually tranquil nature, called SEKMET-HATHOR. In that respect she corresponds to the evil CTHULHUIN HASTUR. A less horrifying but kindred likeness is in the fact that HASTUR was orig-inally the god of the sherpards (according to Bierce's delineation) :