Cthulhu

Cthulhu
Cthulhu Mythos character
A sketch of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft in 1934
First appearance	"The Call of Cthulhu" (1928)
Created by	H. P. Lovecraft
Information
Species	Great Old One
Title	High Priest of the Great Old Ones The Great Dreamer The Sleeper of R'lyeh
Family	Azathoth (great-great-grandfather) Yog-Sothoth (grandfather) Shub-Niggurath (grandmother) Nug (parent)

Azathoth (great-great-grandfather)
Yog-Sothoth (grandfather)
Shub-Niggurath (grandmother)

Cthulhu ([(k)ʟ̝̊ʊlʔɬuː]) is a fictional cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft and first introduced in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published in the American pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the pantheon of Lovecraftian cosmic entities, the creature has since been featured in numerous popular culture references. Lovecraft depicts Cthulhu as a gigantic entity worshipped by cultists. Cthulhu's appearance is described as looking like an octopus, a dragon and a caricature of human form. Its name was given to the Lovecraft-inspired universe where it and its fellow entities existed, the Cthulhu Mythos.

Though invented by Lovecraft in 1928, the name Cthulhu is probably derived from the Classic Greek word chthonic meaning "subterranean", as apparently suggested by Lovecraft himself at the end of his 1923 tale The Rats in the Walls.

Lovecraft transcribed the pronunciation of Cthulhu as Khlûl′-hloo and said that "the first syllable pronounced gutturally and very thickly. The u is about like that in full; and the first syllable is not unlike klul in sound, hence the h represents the guttural thickness." An approximate IPA transcription, based on this description and the non-IPA signs, would be [(k)ʟ̝̊ʊlʔɬuː], with a voiceless velar lateral fricative. S. T. Joshi points out, however, that Lovecraft gave several differing pronunciations on different occasions. According to Lovecraft, this is merely the closest that the human vocal apparatus can come to reproducing the syllables of an alien language. Cthulhu has also been spelled in many other ways, including Tulu, Katulu and Kutulu. The name is often preceded by the epithet Great, Dead, or Dread.