‘Yog-Sothoth’ is a basically immature conception, & unfitted for really serious literature...
H.P. Lovecraft to Frank Belknap Long, 22 February 1931
The “Cthulhu Mythos” is a name given to the superficial elements of Lovecraft’s fiction: the extraterrestrial “gods,” the magical grimoires, and the fictional New England towns. However, Lovecraft never used the term “Cthulhu Mythos,” on rare occasions referring to this series of connected stories as his “Arkham cycle.” The term “Cthulhu Mythos” was probably coined by August Derleth (or perhaps Clark Ashton Smith) after Lovecraft’s death. As such, one could easily make the argument that Lovecraft never wrote any “Cthulhu Mythos” stories.
These superficial elements have been used by a multitude of writers, several of them members of the “Lovecraft Circle.” The “mythos” has so captured the imaginations of people that it is perhaps better known (and more widely read) than Lovecraft’s own work. Indeed, many items of popular culture that claim to be inspired by Lovecraft are, in reality, more inspired by the “mythos.” The works of H.P. Lovecraft and those of the “Cthulhu Mythos” should be considered as two completely different phenomena.
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