Was the character Cthulhu (gigantic proportions, anthropoid body, cephalopod head, bat wings! Great visual!) developed solely from Lovecraft’s imagination, or borrowed from mythology?
I believe it was pretty much original to Lovecraft.
Cthulhu and most of that mythos was original with Lovecraft, aside from the bits contributed by other writers after H.P. started the ball rolling (and, I believe, with his encouragement). Lovecraft was influenced by mythology – there’s no doubt. He actually quotes some real sources and authorities, and its clear from his other writings that he’s well-read.
I argued in my book that Cthulhu might have been influenced by the classical Gorgon – the gorgons, too, had great wings and scaly bodies, and the snaky head ties in pretty well with an octopoid head – Before the end of the 19th century some had suggested that the octopus or squid was the inspiration for the gorgon’s head, and in 1905 F.T. Elworthy had written a lengthy article arguing the case in the journal Folk-Lore. It really wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Lovecraft had read that. The idea was independently suggested over and over again by many people who weren’t aware of the previous suggestions. I’ve come across a few very recent depictions of Medusa that show her hair not as snakes, but as be-suckered octopoid tentacles.
Cough… Lord Dunsany… Gods of Pegana… cough.
HEY!!
No prostate exams while blogging!! :mad:
Well, the idea of dead/forgotten/brooding Old Gods is hardly new. Such tales date to antiquity, with the wars between the Greek Gods 2.0 (Zeus, Mars, Hera, etc.) and the Titans/primordial gods (Kronos, etc.)
These themes are repeated in a lot of mythologies. See also, Norse Gods vs. the primordial giants, the winning of Britain in Celtic mythology, and many others.
Also, Lovecraft was certainly influenced by Dunsany and others (and readily acknowledged them.) However, I think the specific morphology and mythology of Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones was pretty much all Lovecraft.
I argued in my book that Cthulhu might have been influenced by the classical Gorgon –
Your book?!? Your book?!?
Please don’t leave me hanging like this! You can’t just casually mention “I argued in my book…” and not provide more information (or a complete citation)! I am definitely interested in learning more about this mysterious book!
Drat!!!
I used to have a book which featured stories about the Chluthu Mythos *not *written by Lovecraft. 
Those aren’t exactly rare, you know. The vast majority of Cthulhu stories were not written by Lovecraft. Even during his life, he actively encouraged other writers to use his ideas and characters in their own stories, and he’s only grown more popular in the seventy years since his death. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of collections of these stories available.
Much but not all of the Cthulhu Mythos came from the fertile imagination of Lovecraft – but some elements were contributed by Derleth, Robert E. (Conan the Barbarian) Howard, and others. And he was not above incorporating material from others, e.g., Robert Chambers’ Hastur.
gytalf writes:
E-mail me your e-mail and I’ll send further particulars, but I won’t do it openly on the Board.
The idea that the old gods are still alive and want to get back in, OTOH, is one you will not find in any mythology I know of – not even those with heavily apocalyptic themes, such as the Aztecs’.
<hijack mode/free advertising for a book I like>
Though it makes for an interesting part of the plot for Harry Turtledove’s The Case of the Toxic Spelldump.
Warning - the link goes to an HTML version offering the first four chapters of the book. Reading the teaser might leave you wanting more.
<end hijack mode/free advertising for a book I like>
Wait. I thought that was the whole point of Norse Ragnarok…that the giants (the previously deposed Old Powers) would eventually invade Asgard, precipitating the end of the world.
Isn’t that an element of the old Greek myths? Zeus over threw the titans and imprisoned them in Hades. So far as I know, they never really played a role in any myths after they were locked up, but them being imprisoned does imply that they’d like to get out and set things back to the way they were when they were in charge.
Book plug (with minor spoiler): I just read a neat little novel called Orphans of Chaos, by John C. Wright, about five kids in a strange English boarding school who discover they are the children of the titans, being held hostage to prevent the titans from starting a war with the Olympian gods and ending the universe. The main character has the form of a normal eighteen year old girl, but it’s revealed fairly early on that her true form is a Lovecraftian monstrosity: a sort of winged squid, in her own words. Neat book: it makes a good argument for why the Old Ones are justified in wanting to destroy reality.
The gods who preceded the Aesir were the Vanir, not the giants.
I always assumed he cribbed the name from the Chthonic (or Earth-based) Greek gods, although the concept is fairly dissimilar.
Umm… you have noted his location, haven’t you? 
Not entirely true. The Vanir and the Aesir warred, but the Vanir weren’t really predecessors, from what I’ve read. The mythology as I understand it was that the chaos of Muspellheim and Niflheim forged a primitive sort of order where they met, giving birth to Ymir, the father of the giants, and the son of chaos. The other birth was that of the Sacred Ice Cow (I know I know,) although I don’t remember her name at the moment. Ymir birthed the giants, who were pretty much unreconstructed monsters. The cow birthed Odin, who embodied Order. Odin, with other gods of his ilk, eventually defeated the giants, killing Ymir, and banishing his children to various nasty places, where they forever brood about their lost dominion…until Ragnarok.
If I remember correctly, the dichotomy between the Aesir and Vanir was usually seen as a reflection of the invasions of other tribes into the Norse territories. Therefore, the Vanir were sort of regarded as the gods of the invaders.