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Azathoth is a deity in the Cthulhu Mythos and Dream Cycle stories of H. P. Lovecraft and other authors. Its epithets include The Nuclear Chaos, The Daemon Sultan and The Blind Idiot God, who unintentionally created the universe & sits at the center of it. He is said to be a swirling mass of tentacles reaching an impossible size.

Name[]

It seems that the term comes from the fusion of the biblical terms Anathoth and Azazel, which refer to a city and a desert demon, respectively. It can also be related to the Azoth of alchemy, the supposed universal agent or substance that allows transmutation.

In Lovecraftian fiction, the word "Azathoth" designates "a fundamental evil too terrible to be described." This denomination is the one that, apparently, is used in the Necronomicon to refer to him, being his real name so terrible that nobody dares to pronounce it. This somewhat resembles Hastur.

Appearance[]

Despite never being accurately described, it is suggested that Azathoth is a formless mass full of tentacles that inhabits the center of the primal chaos, which in reality is still an extension of his own being. He is usually represented with innumerable jaws and eyes, showing himself in this way as the purest concept of confusion and structural disorder.

Overview[]

Azathoth never physically appears, what is known about him is solely due to allusions given by the Necronomicon. It is exactly the texts of the passages in which his name appears the only thing that certifies his existence, but Nyarlathotep, his herald, is already in charge of keeping alive the terrifying legend of this "Sultan of demons".

It is said among other things that Azathoth is a blind and unintelligent deity. It is precisely his stupidity that makes him so dangerous, since for her he is thoughtless and insensitive to the pain that he can cause in the event that he suffers a fit of rage; But, to avoid this, some monstrous flute players play a hypnotic melody that lulls you and keeps you sleepy. For this and much more, Azathoth's behavior can be considered like that of a small child but, being so big and powerful, he could even destroy the universe.

For the other gods, Azathoth is more of a force of nature than a companion. In fact, it is his own "allies" who use the flute players to hypnotize him and who cannot escape his control. Azathoth inspires them more fear than respect and precisely in the poem Azathoth it is implicit that even Nyarlathotep, being the being closest to him, feels affection for Azathoth, and even dares to ridicule him. In relation to this, it can be said that Azathoth's stupidity makes him the perfect puppet of more intelligent gods, in particular Nyarlathotep himself, who often uses the fear that Azathoth inspires to achieve his own goals.

No human (and maybe no one in the universe) knows his real name. Azathoth was the name that Abdul Alhazred used in the Necronomicon to refer to him, and since then the use of the term became general among occultists who wanted to name this god to enhance the invocations of him.

From the moment that August Derleth structured the Myths, it was established that Azathoth was an omnipotent and omniscient being known as Xada-Hgla who was deprived of his intelligence as punishment for having tried to conquer the Universe. It is possible that this lost wisdom condensed and formed Yog-Sothoth (however, a much more accepted version says that Yog-Sothoth is the son of Nyog'Sothep).

External links[]

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