Ghatanothoa

A hellish god of the spawn of Yuggoth (the Outer Ones), left behind them in the crypts beneath the fortress on Mount Yaddith-Gho in prehistoric Mu. Ghatanothoa can never die. In appearance, Ghatanothoa is large, amorphous, and plastic, with tentacles, elephant-like trunk (proboscidian), and octopus eyes, and a surface both scaly and wrinkly. [HPL Aeons (online text)]

Anyone who sees Ghatanothoa is petrified, turned to stone and leather on the outside, while his brain remains perpetually alive.

Von Junzt, in his Nameless Cults, wrote of the cult of Ghatanothoa. According to Von Junzt, the Ghatanothoa cult flourished chiefly in Pacific near the former location of Mu, but also reached to Atlantis, Leng, K'n-yan, Egypt, Chaldea, Persia, China, Africa, Mexico, Peru, and Europe. Western culture was never favorable to its growth, and stamped out many of its branches. The cult became secretive and always survived, chiefly in Far East and Pacific Islands; its teachings were absorbed into the lore of the Polynesian Areoi.

In ancient Mu, Ghatanothoa's priests in the province of K'naa yearly sacrificed twelve young warriors and twelve maidens on flaming altars in marble temple near base of Yaddith-Gho. The 100 priests of Ghatanothoa had each a marble house, a chest of gold, two hundred slaves, a hundred concubines, immunity from civil law and power of life and death. T'yog, a priest of Shub-Niggurath, sought to save humanity from Ghatanothoa but was sabotaged by Imash-Mo.

During 1931-1932, news of the mummy of T'yog at the Cabot Museum inspired outbursts of cult activity around the world; reports mentioned variants of Ghatanothoa's name such as G'tanta, Tanotah, Than-Tha, Gatan, and Ktan-Tah. Richard Johnson saw the image of Ghatanothoa in the eyes of the mummified T'yog.

Aka: Dark God.

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