This essay has been replaced by the essay in my new book of revised, expanded, and footnoted versions of my recent Tentaclii essays, Lovecraft in Historical Context: fifth collection.
Lovecraft and Chthetho
08 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in Historical context
Wowie!! Good article, David! Very interesting, and makes me want to dig back into Egyptian mythology, although, alas, inertia may triumph yet again….
Only 18 months before the plotting of “The Call of Cthulhu”, Lovecraft also mentions “Re-Harakhte, the Horizon-Sun” (Ra-Horus of the Horizon, either sunset or dawn) in “Under The Pyramids”. He researched and wrote this story for Houdini in the early months of 1924. Lovecraft shows there that he is aware of the dual nature of Horus (Horus becomes Ra some hours after crossing the horizon at sunset, and that Ra becomes Horus when nearing the sunrise). Since early in “Under The Pyramids” the sunset is described as having…
“stood poised on the world’s rim like that ancient god of Heliopolis — Re-Harakhte, the Horizon-Sun”.
Hmmm, and here I thought his love of fish people and such things tied Cthulhu closer to the Kullulu of ancient Mesopotamian myth. A thing Lovecraft was also fond of.
The ancient Akkadian “kullulu” was a word meaning veil (bridal), crown, roof, or elevated, depending on context. The notion that “Kullulu” was the name for the Assyrian “fish man” deity Oannes/Dagon is wrong and seems to be a spurious modern occultist confabulation, presumably traceable to whichever fool wrote http://symboldictionary.net/?p=3006