I’ve heard the phrases “the maw of madness” and “mouth of madness” all of my life and now I’ve fixated myself on trying to find the origin. The closest I can think of is either the story of Jonah and the whale, but I find no similar phrase in the bible or from Latin classes I remember translating something along the lines of “descend in to the mouth of hades”
Lovecraft?
I’m having trouble finding any source earlier than Lovecraft. If he didn’t create it, he certainly popularized it.
I want to say that i saw references before 1995 and before then the phrase (that supposedly inspired the book/movie was “mountain of madness”) feel free to correct me if necessary, my research was minimal. I almost want to say that I saw a reference from the early 1900s