# Cthulhu
Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic monster invented by horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, first appearing in his 1928 short story 'The Call of Cthulhu.' The tentacle-faced sea entity became a go-to internet reference for cosmic horror, spawning Dr. Seuss-style parodies, a cryptocurrency called Offerings, and years of fan art across Tumblr, deviantArt, and Reddit.
## Overview
Cthulhu is a fictional monster invented by American pulp horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, usually drawn as a huge cephalopod-like being with a tentacled face, clawed hands, long narrow wings folded behind a bloated corpulent body, and slick scaly skin[1]. The name is supposed to be unpronounceable by human tongues, and Lovecraft never settled on a canonical pronunciation, though fans commonly use 'KAH-THOO-LOO' or 'CHA-THOO-LAH' in casual conversation[6].
In the fictional mythology, Cthulhu is a hybrid of 'an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature,' locked in a death-like sleep inside R'lyeh, a sunken city with non-Euclidean architecture generally placed near Valparaiso in the Pacific Ocean[6]. His status of 'dead but dreaming' is one of the most-quoted bits of the mythos, along with the ritual chant 'ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn,' translated as 'in his house at R'lyeh sleeping Cthulhu waits dreaming'[5]. Cthulhu ended up as the recognizable face of internet cosmic horror despite being a fairly minor character in Lovecraft's own writing, where he mostly worked as a vague plot device.
## How It Spread
Cthulhu stayed niche until after Lovecraft's death in 1937, when a group of writers known as 'The Lovecraft Circle,' including August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith, kept publishing new stories about Lovecraft's alien entities[1]. Derleth, Lovecraft's first publisher and personal friend, reorganized the loose mythology into a formal cosmology with a war between 'Elder Gods' and 'Outer Gods,' and locked Cthulhu beneath the ocean after losing a battle to a group of 'good' gods, a framing many fans found controversial since Lovecraft treated the mythos as a shifting, kaleidoscopic setting rather than a fixed system[1].
Internet fandom picked up in the 2000s and 2010s. The image blog Lolthulhu regularly posted LOLcat-style Cthulhu image macros, and Tumblr accounts like Fuck Yeah Cthulhu and Oh No Cthulhu collected fan art under the #cthulhu tag[5]. On September 29, 2011, deviantArt user DrFaustusAU uploaded a short illustrated adaptation of 'The Call of Cthulhu' drawn in the exact color palette and rhyme scheme of Dr. Seuss, which got reposted across i09, Laughing Squid, Ology, and Geeks Are Sexy[3].
By September 2011, the Cthulhu Facebook fan page had over 170,000 likes, a fan Twitter account had roughly 2,580 followers, and the /r/Cthulhu subreddit had 646 readers[5]. In 2016, Ultraculture published a large hierarchical map of Cthulhu Mythos beings ranked from Outer Gods down to Great Old Ones, Lesser and Greater Servitor Races, and Independent Races, a poster-style visual that spread widely across fandom and chaos-magick circles[4].
## How to Use
Cthulhu is generally used as a shorthand for cosmic dread, inhuman scale, or things too weird to describe. Fans typically draw Cthulhu in his classic tentacle-face silhouette, drop the phrase 'ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn' as an ominous flourish, or splice the character into unrelated formats like LOLcat macros, Dr. Seuss picture books, cryptocurrency branding, and reaction images about impending doom[5]. The visual is common enough that even a rough silhouette of a tentacled head with wings is enough to signal 'Lovecraftian.'
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Cthulhu?
Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic monster invented by horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, drawn as a tentacle-faced, winged, cephalopod-like being with clawed hands and scaly skin[1].
### Where did Cthulhu come from?
Cthulhu debuted in Lovecraft's short story 'The Call of Cthulhu' in the February 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Weird Tales[5].
### What does Cthulhu mean?
Cthulhu is the name of Lovecraft's Great Old One, a dead-but-dreaming priest of alien gods locked in the sunken city of R'lyeh beneath the Pacific Ocean[6].
### How do you use Cthulhu?
Fans use Cthulhu as a stand-in for cosmic horror in art, memes, LOLcat-style macros, chants like 'ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn,' and inside jokes about human insignificance[5].
### Is Cthulhu still popular?
Cthulhu is a classic fixture of internet horror fandom, with active fan pages, subreddits, and #cthulhu tag activity going back to the early 2010s across Tumblr, deviantArt, Facebook, and Reddit[5].
### Who created Cthulhu?
American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft created Cthulhu in 1928 for his short story 'The Call of Cthulhu'[5].
### What does Cthulhu look like?
Lovecraft described Cthulhu as a pulpy tentacled head on a grotesque scaly rubbery body with prodigious claws and long narrow wings, roughly a cross between an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature[1].
### How do you pronounce Cthulhu?
Lovecraft claimed the name couldn't be said accurately with a human tongue, but common fan pronunciations are 'KAH-THOO-LOO' or 'CHA-THOO-LAH'[6].
### What is R'lyeh?
R'lyeh is the fictional sunken city with non-Euclidean architecture where Cthulhu lies dreaming, usually placed near Valparaiso in the Pacific Ocean[6].
### Is there a Cthulhu cryptocurrency?
Yes. Cthulhu Offerings (OFF) was announced on the Bitcointalk forum on September 13, 2013 by developer Adam McKinney under the username Blazr2, and was profiled by The Verge in July 2014[2].
### Who expanded Cthulhu's mythology after Lovecraft died?
August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith, part of a group called 'The Lovecraft Circle,' kept writing new mythos stories and organized the material into a formal Elder Gods vs Outer Gods cosmology[1].
### What is the Dr. Seuss Cthulhu book?
On September 29, 2011, deviantArt user DrFaustusAU uploaded an illustrated version of 'The Call of Cthulhu' drawn in the style and color palette of Dr. Seuss, which got picked up by i09, Laughing Squid, and Geeks Are Sexy[3].
## References
1. [https://cthulhufiles.com/]()
2. [https://www.theverge.com/2014/7/24/5933497/cthulhu-based-cryptocurrency-gains-ground]()
3. [https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2011/10/09/awesome-h-p-lovecraft-for-beginning-readers-pics/]()
4. [https://ultraculture.org/blog/2016/01/16/lovecraftian-bestiary/]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cthulhu]()
6. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cthulhu]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/cthulhu
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