MI-GO

MI-GO

"They were pinkish things about five feet long; with crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or membranous wings and several sets of articulated limbs, and with a sort of convoluted ellipsoid, covered with multitudes of very short antennae, where a head would ordinarily be."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Whisperer In Darkness

SHAPELESS LIVING THING

SHAPELESS LIVING THING

"80-Shapeless living thing forming nucleus of ancient building."

H.P. Lovecraft, Commonplace Book

DARK YOUNG

DARK YOUNG OF SHUB-NIGGURATH

"'Ever Their praises, and abundance to the Black Goat of the Woods. Iä! Shub-Niggurath!Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!'"

H.P. Lovecraft, The Whisperer In Darkness

"That's as close as I can come. The mouths was like leaves and the whole thing was like a tree in the wind, a black tree with lots of branches trailing to the ground, and a whole lot of roots ending in hoofs. And that green slime dribbling out of the mouths and down the legs was like sap!"

"It came crawling up the hillside to the alter and the sacrefice, and it was the black thing of my dreams-that black ropy, slimy, jelly tree-thing out of the woods. It crawled up and it flowed up on its hoofs and mouths and snaky arms. And the men bowed and stood back and then it got to the alter where they was something squirmin on top, 

squirming and screaming."

Robert Bloch, Notebook Found In a Deserted House

THINGS THAT DEVOUR AND DISSOLVE

THINGS THAT DEVOUR AND DISSOLVE

"You think those floundering things wiped out the servants? Fool, they are harmless! But the servants are gone, aren’t they?" "Things are hunting me now—the things that devour and dissolve—but I know how to elude them."

"My pets are not pretty, for they come out of places where aesthetic standards are—very different. Disintegration is quite painless, I assure you—but I want you to see them. I almost saw them, but I knew how to stop."

H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond

MARTIN'S BEACH HORROR

MARTIN'S BEACH HORROR

"The object was some fifty feet in length, of roughly cylindrical shape, and about ten feet in diameter. It was unmistakably a gilled fish in its major affiliations; but with certain curious modifications such as rudimentary forelegs and six-toed feet in place of pectoral fins, which prompted the widest speculation. Its extraordinary mouth, its thick and scaly hide, and its single, deep-set eye were wonders scarcely less remarkable than its colossal dimensions;" 

H.P. Lovecraft & Sonia H. Greene, The Horror At Martin's Beach

FISHER FROM THE OUTSIDE

FISHERS FROM THE OUTSIDE

"The ancient Fishers from Outside—Were there not tales the high-priest told, Of how they found the worlds of old, And took what pelf their fancy spied?" 

H.P. Lovecraft, The Outpost

"One glimpse of the repulsive thing with its one leg and one glaring Cyclopean eye and hideous, hooked, fang-lined beak-"

Lin Carter & H.P. Lovecraft, Fishers From the Outiside

MONSTROUS FROG

MONSTROUS FROG

"There, squatting in the midst of the tumbled bedding from that long-abandoned bed, sat a monstrous, leathery-skinned creature that was neither frog nor man, one gorged with food, with blood still slavering from its batrachian jaws and upon its webbed fingers - a monstrous entity that had strong, powerfully long arms, grown from its bestial body like those of a frog, and tapering off into a man's hands, save for the webbing between the fingers..." 

H.P. Lovecraft & August Derleth, The Shuttered Room

FUNGUS VAMPIRE

FUNGUS VAMPIRE

"Out of the fungous-ridden earth steamed up a vaporous corpse-light, yellow and diseased, which bubbled and lapped to a gigantic height in vague outlines half human and half monstrous, through which I could see the chimney and fireplace beyond. It was all eyes - wolfish and mocking - and the rugose insect-like head dissolved at the top to a thin stream of mist which curled putridly about and finally vanished up the chimney."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Shunned House

VOONITH

VOONITH

"And all through the night a voonith howled distantly from the shore of some hidden pool, but Carter felt no fear of that amphibious terror, since he had been told with certainty that not one of them dares even approach the slope of Ngranek."

H.P. Lovecraft, Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath

Y'M-BHI

Y'M-BHI
"These, Gll’-Hthaa-Ynn explained, were what men called the y’m-bhi—organisms which had died, but which had been mechanically reanimated for industrial purposes by means of atomic energy and thought-power."

"Those which most repelled Zamacona were those whose mutilations were greatest; for some were wholly headless, while others had suffered singular and seemingly capricious subtractions, distortions, transpositions, and graftings in various places. The Spaniard could not account for this condition, but Gll’-Hthaa-Ynn made it clear that these were slaves who had been used for the amusement of the people in some of the vast arenas."

H.P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop, The Mound

BASTET

BASTET
"What was the land of these wanderers none could tell; but it was seen that they were given to strange prayers, and that they had painted on the sides of their wagons strange figures with human bodies and the heads of cats, hawks, rams, and lions. And the leader of the caravan wore a head-dress with two horns and a curious disc betwixt the horns."

H.P. Lovecraft, The Cats Of Ulthar

"Bastet was the goddess of the domestic cat, loving and faithful, in contrast to the lion-goddess Sekhmet, who stood for all the fury of which the cat family is capable."

Charles Freeman, The Legacy Of Ancient Egypt

"She was depicted as a woman with a cat's head, carrying a sistrum."
Veronica Ions, Egyptian Mythology

URANUS

URANUS

"In Tartarus the Titans writhe, and beneath the fiery Aetna groan the children of Uranus and Gaea."

H.P. Lovecraft & Anna Helen Crofts, Poetry And the Gods

"And Ouranos came, bringing on night and longing forlove, and he lay about Gaia spreading himself full upon her. Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's members and cast them away to fall behind him."

Hesiod, Theogony

"May the great wide bronze sky (ouranos) fall upon me from above, the fear of earth-born men."

Theognis, Fragment 1. 869

"OURANOS (Uranus) was the primordial god (protogenos) of the sky. The Greeks imagined the sky as a solid dome of brass, decorated with stars, whose edges descended to rest upon the outermost limits of the flat earth. Ouranos was the literal sky, just as his consort Gaia (Gaea) was the earth."

"Ouranos does not appear in early Greek art but Egyptian depictions of their sky-goddess Nut demonstrate how he was imagined--as a gigantic, star-spangled man with long arms and legs, resting on all fours, with his finger-tips in the far east, his toes in the far west, and his arching body raised to form the dome of the sky."

Aaron J. Atsma, The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology 

ORPHEUS

ORPHEUS

"Thus Thracia's savage matrons wildly tore

The pensive Orpheus on swift Hebrus' shore."

H.P. Lovecraft, Why Trees Are Tall

"Kalliope was the mother of the bard Orpheus. When her son was dismembered by the Bakkhantes, she recovered his head and enshrined on the island of Lesbos."

"A man recovers the severed head of the poet Orpheus which has washed up on the shores of the island of Lesbos. The head is still alive and giving prophetic utterances."

Aaron J. Atsma, The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology

"But Venus, angry because she had not been granted what she thought was her right, stirred the women in Thrace by love, each to seek Orpheus for herself, so that they tore him limb from limb. His head, carried down from the mountain into the sea, was cast by the waves upon the island of Lesbos."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica

"His tongue though lifeless, uttered a mournful sound and mournfully the river's banks replied: onward borne by the river to the sea they left their native stream and reached the shore of Lesbos at Methymna."

Ovid, Metamorphoses

 

TLOQUENAHUAQUE/TEZCATLIPOCA/IPALNEMOAN (NYARLATHOTEP)

TLOQUENAHUAQUE/TEZCATLIPOCA/IPALNEMOAN (NYARLATHOTEP)

'“Iä! Iä! Tloquenahuaque, Thou Who Art All In Thyself!  
Thou too, Ipalnemoan, By Whom We Live!"'

 H.P. Lovecraft & Adolphe de Castro, The Electric Executioner

"The figure's robes and ornaments mark it as an ahua, or godking, but the Maya never drew or depicted figures with multiple arms. The two headed snake is the double-headed serpent bar, borne by Mayan kinds as a symbol of their authority. The blood-red tentacle in place of a head is very unconventional, but seems likely to be a blood scroll (a symbolic representation of a stream of blood), implying that this is a decapitated captive king."

"Then he was a tall, limping man, with bright plumed headdress and a shining black mirror at his ankle. The Crawling Chaos said that in this mask he did rule at Tenoshititlan, and did drink the blood of thousands spilled to vilify him."
Sam Johnson, A Resection Of Time

"In some cases, the highest source of life seems to transcend the polytheistic pantheon, and it can be addressed with singular or dual names: One striking name is Ipalnemoa(ni), "the one through whom one is living" (Life Giver), or Tloque Nauaque, "omnipresent one."'

 Andreas Grünschloß, Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature 

"The complex and conflicted character of Tezcatlipoca seen by their different names and
attributes. In Book VI of the Florentine Codex, 360 names or ways to address Tezcatipoca
are found. Some of the names are:
Tloque Nahuaque: The Lord Of the Near and Nigh"
Doris Heyden, Tezcatlipoca En el Mundo Náhuatl

"During the Late Postclassic period, Tezcatlipoca may appear with a serpent foot, although in this case the serpent usually appears emerging from the smoking mirror that typically replaces his foot. The mirror or serpent foot probably aludes to the creation myth in which Tezcatlipoca loses his foot while battling with the earth monster. Aside from the smoking obsidian mirror marking his foot, the Late Postclassic Tezcatlipoca tends to have broad alternating bands of yellow and black across the face. The nocturnal jaguar, the most powerful animal of Mesoamerica, was the animal counterpart of Tezcatlipoca."

Mary Miller & Karl Taube, The Gods and Symbols Of Ancient Mexico and the Maya

 "There are small bells on his legs, pear-shaped and round bells."

"He was, from the top of his arms down to his hands, painted black with gypsum, which is a sort of shining metal...His legs, from half of his thighs all the way down, were dyed in the same manner."

Guilhem Olivier, 

Mockeries and Metomorphoses Of An Aztec God: Tezcatlipoca, Lord Of the Smoking Mirror
  
"The mask of the god Tezcatlipoca was made from shell, turquoise, lignite and human skull."

Anita Ganeri, Mesoamerican Myth
 

"A protean wizard, Tezcatlipoca caused the death of many Toltecs by his black magic and induced the virtuous Quetzalcóatl to sin, drunkenness, and carnal love, thus putting an end to the Toltec golden age. Under his influence the practice of human sacrifice was introduced into central Mexico."

Encyclopedia Britannica

TIRAWA

 TIRAWA

"In the autumn his children were hungry and wild, and Yig was hungry and wild, too. All the tribes made medicine against Yig when the corn harvest came. They gave him some corn, and danced in proper regalia to the sound of whistle, rattle, and drum. They kept the drums pounding to drive Yig away, and called down the aid of Tiráwa, whose children men are, even as the snakes are Yig’s children."

H.P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop, The Curse Of Yig 

"According to the Pawnee, the world was created by the god Tirawa, who sent the stars to support the sky. Some brighter stars were in charge of the clouds, winds and rain. This was to ensure the fertility of the Earth. Some lesser stars became jealous. " 

Julia Gunyuk, Tirawa

APOLLO

 APOLLO

"O'er the damp wold Apollo's shafts descend 
In golden show'rs, that mercifully rend
The Python chill of Winter, whose dread pow'r
So lately coil'd about the budding bow'r."
H.P. Lovecraft, Ver Rusticum

 "Apollo, the god of archery, prophecy and music, was the son of Juipiter and Latona, and brother of Diana."

"Mercury is said to have invented the lyre. He found, one day a tortoise, of which he took the shell, made holes in the opposite edges of it and drew cords of linen through them and the instrument was complete. Mercury gave the lyre to Apollo, and received from him in exchange the caduceus."
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology

"To avenge the death of his son Asklepios, who had been killed by a lightning bolt, Apollon slew the Kyklopes who had forged the weapon."
Aaron J. Atsma, The Theoi Project: Greek Mythology

SATURN

SATURN

"Etherial spirits of celestial grace;

And he, unspoil'd, may childlike bask again 

Beneath the beams of Saturn's golden reign."

H.P. Lovecraft, Simplicity: A Poem

"Cronus, a son of Uranus and Ge, and the youngest among the Titans. At the instigation of his mother, Cronus unmanned his father for having thrown the Cyclopes, who were likewise his children by Ge, into Tartarus. Out of the blood thus shed sprang up the Erinnyes. The Romans identified their Saturnus with the Cronus of the Greeks."

Sir William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology

"Men believe that Zeus . . . put his father Kronos in bonds because he wickedly devoured his children, and he in turn had mutilated his father for similar reasons."

Plato, Euthyphro

THE STRANGE DARK ONE (NYARLATHOTEP)

 THE STRANGE DARK ONE (NYARLATHOTEP)

"He stood on a slightly raised platform, the shrouded one. Swarthy, slender, sinister, he was robed in scarlet silk. On a table beside him was a device similar to a child's magic lantern. Its diseased illumination cast obscene shapes that moved along the walls."

"Weakly, I raised my agonizing head. He stood before me-grim, austere, merciless. My hungry mouth kissed his chilly feet."

"Boldly, I clung to Nyarlathotep's garment and pulled myself to my feet. Swirling light and blackness played upon his regal visage. Fantastically, he smiled' and as he did so his face slipped, as though he wore some tight-fitting mask that had momentarily lost its hold. He lifted a hand and I saw upon his palm a living symbol. Tilting to it, I licked the pulsing insignia. It was sharp and ripped the tongue that touched it."

W.H. Pugmire, The Hands That Reek and Smoke

From a story provided exclusively for an Illustro Obscurum collaboration

GNOPH-KEH

GNOPH-KEH
"A small bulge in the canvas far to the right suggested the sharp horn of Gnoph-keh, the hairy myth-thing of the Greenland ice, that walked sometimes on two legs, sometimes on four, and sometimes on six."
H.P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald, The Horror In the Museum

CHARON

 CHARON

"And mourning Satyrs sound the dismal reed; 

Taygetus repeats the gen'ral woe, 

Whilst Charon grumbles in the gulf below."

H.P. Lovecraft, Monody On the Late King Alcohol

"A grim ferryman watches over the rivers and streams,

Charon, dreadful in his squalor, with a mass of unkempt

white hair straggling from his chin: flames glow in his eyes"
Vergil, Aeneid

"At one end is Charun, winged, with a monstrous face, heavy brow ridges, and great tusks. His upper torso is nude."

"Charun appears much oftener; his name is evidently taken from the Greek Charon, the ferryman of the dead, but his appearance and personality are quite different. Often winged like Tuchulcha, he has a hooked nose, horrid tusks, snaky hair, and is generally armed with a hammer. He appears as the announcer of death and divider of families, the guide on the road to Hades, the porter at hell's gate. "
Emeline Richardson, The Etruscans Their Art and Civilization
 

"Most of the time, Vanth is an attractive female fiure, a welcome contrast to her ugly partner Charu. Here Charu, with his scowling, hook-nosed bestial countenance ( he even has donkey's ears in this case, is balanced by the beautiful Vanth."

"Their skin is quite revolting, bluish or greenish with one demon, Charun huths, having blisters or sores all over the skin, all are sporting wings."
Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend

"The Etruscans probably looked for a representable appearance for demons already existing in their concept of demonic power, guiding the deceased to the gates of the Netherworld, and they found it with some modifications, in Charon."
Nancy Thomson De Grummond, Erika Simon, The Religion of the Etruscans

"Not all the details fit by any means, and some of Tuchulcha's features are those of another Near Eastern underworld figure, the demoness Lamashtu - notably the ass's ears (which Charun also sports) and hand held snakes."
Graeme Barker & Tom Rasmussen, The Etruscans