Cthulhu is one of many fictional Deities referred to as the "Great Old Ones" by H.P. Lovecraft and his predecessors. First introduced in the short story, "The Call of Cthulhu" which was then published inside the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928, Cthulhu has become a very popular figure outside of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, easily recognized by his name alone.
This cross between a human, octopus and dragon is described as being enormously tall(hundreds of meters), possessing webbed-humanoid arms and legs, as well as a pair of wings which tend to be described as not fully developed. H.P. Lovecraft describes Cthulhu(Well, a statue of Cthulhu) as the following: "A monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind."
Cthulhu is worshiped by various humanoid and non-humanoid races as well as a select few human religious cults(a few named locations are the Chinese mountains, Greenland, Louisiana as well as New Zealand). It is stated that Cthulhu will eventually break free of his entrapment and return, all the while his worshipers cling to their hopeful faith and chant "
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" ("In his house at
R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.")
Lovecraft May have created the name "Cthulhu", however inspiration for this name may have been a direct adaptation of the Classic Greek word "Chthonic" which translates into the word "subterranean". Pronunciations aside(which varied along with spelling), two consistencies have been that 1) H.P. Lovecraft intended for the name "Cthulhu" to be pronounced in what he believed was the closest our human vocal apparatus could arrive at resembling or recreating syllables of an Alien language, and 2) a title(byname or epithet) is almost always and tends to be, included when speaking of Cthulhu(An example is the above paragraph where worshipers addressed Cthulhu as "Dead Cthulhu").
Cthulhu is described as a malevolent entity who is imprisoned in the walls of R'lyeh, an underwater city located somewhere in the South Pacific. The Dreaded Deity appears to be the source of constant anxiety among the Human population(Albeit on a subconscious level and not as an active awareness) and has made numerous appearances in other pieces of literature(such as
"The Dunwich Horror" and
"The Return of Hastur") as well as making appearances within games like
"Dungeons and Dragons" or
"Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth". Cthulhu has become so popular, that a region along Pluto's equator which was initially referred to as 'the Whale' is instead being considered as becoming renamed "Cthulhu Regio" due to the efforts of the "New Horizons" mission NASA team. Along with the Cthulhu Regio, The Californian spider species
"Pimoa Cthulhu" derives its name from Cthulhu, as well as
two microorganisms which aid in the digestion of wood for termites and live within their guts, have been given names with reference to Cthulhu and his daughter 'Cthylla':
"Cthulhu macrofasciculumque" and "
Cthylla microfasciculumque".