Ghatanothoa

Ghatanothoa is a fictional deity in the Cthulhu Mythos. The being first appeared in the short story "Out Of The Aeons" (1935) by H. P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald.

ummary

Ghatanothoa is a Great Old One and the first born of Cthulhu. It is a huge, amorphous monstrostity which is so hideous, that anyone who gazes upon it (or even a perfect replica) is petrified into a living mummy. The victim is permanently immobilized—the body taking on the consistency of leather and the internal organs and brain preserved indefinitely—yet remains fully aware. Only the destruction of the subject's brain can free it from its hellish prison, though the unfortunate is likely to be incurably insane long before the welcomed release. [Lovecraft & Heald, "Out of the Aeons", "The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions", p. 272.]

Ghatanothoa is currently trapped underneath Mount Yaddith-Gho in sunken Mu. He was brought to Earth from the planet Yuggoth (Pluto in Lovecraft's fiction) by an ancient, alien race, possibly the Mi-go [

Although the aliens in question are presumed to be the Mi-go, or "Fungi from Yuggoth" (Harms, "The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana" p. 115), S. T. Joshi does not hold this view. In his essay "Lovecraft's Other Planets", Joshi argues that these beings are an older and perhaps indigenous race of Yuggoth. Citing Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness" (1931), Joshi notes that the structures on Yuggoth were "built by some elder race extinct and forgotten" before the Mi-go arrived. Thus, Joshi concludes that these ancient beings—and not the Mi-Go— are "the alien spawn of the dark planet Yuggoth" (as quoted from "Out of the Aeons") that brought Ghatanothoa to Earth. (Joshi, "Lovecraft's Other Planets", "Selected Papers on Lovecraft", p. 39.)

] , who built a colossal fortress atop Yaddith-Gho and sealed Ghatanothoa inside the mountain beneath a large trapdoor. Ghatanothoa was worshipped by the ancient Muvians, who both feared and respected him because of his ability to turn any humans that beheld him into living, thinking mummies.

Many attempted in vain to defeat Ghatanothoa; most notably T'yog, the High Priest of Shub-Niggurath, whose story is recounted in Friedrich von Junzt's grimoire "Unaussprechlichen Kulten" or "Nameless Cults" (Robert E. Howard's answer to Lovecraft's "Necronomicon"). T'yog created a scroll that was supposed to protect him from the petrifying effect of gazing upon Ghatanothoa. But T'yog was defeated after Ghatanothoa's priests stole the scroll and replaced it with a fake one (however, this was not done out of praise for Ghatanothoa, but rather to protect the populace from its wrath had T'Yog failed). This occurred in the Year of the Red Moon, which is 173,148 B.C. according to von Juntz . [Lovecraft & Heald, "Out of the Aeons".]

Other connections to the mythos

In Lin Carter's Xothic legend cycle, Ghatanothoa is said to be the first born of Cthulhu; his siblings, in order of birth, are Ythogtha, Zoth-Ommog, and Cthylla [Carter, "The Thing in the Pit", "The Xothic Legend Cycle".] . Colin Wilson connected Ghatanothoa to the alien, reptilian race of energy beings—the Lloigor—as the deity's servants [Wilson, "The Return of the Lloigor", "Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos".] .

Cultural references

Ghatanothoa's status as a volcano god with the ability to cause petrification may be based on Mount Vesuvius, a volcano that after its eruption, trapped everyone in the city of Pompeii in volcanic rock, effectively rendering them into statues and preserving their body for many years.

Ghatanothoa's petrifyingly hideous appearance is similar to the concept of Medusa the Gorgon from Ancient Greek mythology.

References

Primary sources

*cite book|chapter=The Thing in the Pit|first=Lin [1980] |last=Carter|year=1997|title=|editor=Robert M. Price (ed.)|publisher=Chaosium|location=Oakland, CA|id=ISBN 1-56882-078-X|chapterurl=http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/lion/157/thingin.htm

*cite book|chapter=Out of the Aeons|first=Howard P. [1935] |last=Lovecraft|year=1989|title=The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions|editor=S. T. Joshi (ed.) |edition=4th corrected printing|publisher=Arkham House|location=Sauk City, WI|id=ISBN 0-87054-037-8 Definitive version.

*cite book|last=Tierney|first=Richard L.|title=The House of the Toad|year=1993|location=Minneapolis MN|publisher=Fedogan and Bremer|id=ISBN 1-878252-03-8

*cite book|chapter=The Return of the Lloigor|first=Wilson [1969] |last=Colin|date=October 1998|title=Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos|edition=1st ed.|publisher=Random House|location=New York, NY|id=ISBN 0-345-42204-X

econdary sources

*cite book|chapter=Ghatanothoa|pages=pp. 115–6|first=Daniel|last=Harms|year=1998|title=The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana|edition=2nd ed.|publisher=Chaosium|location=Oakland, CA|id=ISBN 1-56882-119-0

*cite book|chapter=Lovecraft's Other Planets|first=S. T.|last=Joshi|year=1989|title=Selected Papers on Lovecraft|edition=1st printing|publisher=Necronomicon Press|location=West Warwick, RI|id=ISBN 0-940884-23-2

Notes

External links

* [http://terror.snm-hgkz.ch/lovecraft/html/aeons.htm "Out of the Aeons" by H. P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald.]