Kthulhuamen

     What makes us strive to understand the nature of the universe? As a species mankind is simply the latest parasite on a host that is far more ancient than our feeble intellects can truly comprehend. Our oral and written histories cover less than the last eight thousand years of a planet that is more than four and a half billion years old... think about that for a moment... let the enormity of that uncomfortable cosmic truth sink in. Now consider the fact that the vast universe in which our comparatively insignificant world exists is far older; more than fourteen billion years old by the best estimation of scientists and scholars. To put it mildly, we are latecomers to the show.

     But that does not mean we are doomed to suffer the blind ignorance regarding a pre-human world. There are those who watch carefully for glimmers of light shining forth from the darkness of the past. The signs are there if you know where to look; little tears in the shroud that allow a glimpse into the primordial.

     Take for example the subject of today's post. An archival photograph of an Egyptian papyrus attributed to the twenty-seventh century BCE. For those familiar with the Cthulhu Mythos as recorded in the infamous Necronomicon, I don't need to point out the frightening implications made manifest in the central figure seated on a golden throne. For those who may be unfamiliar with that particularly dark branch of esoteric folklore I can only say that in this instance, ignorance is indeed bliss.

Photograph (c. 1967) of an Egyptian papyrus believed to originate in the twenty-seventh century BCE. Seated on a throne is the image of a previously undocumented figure (presumably a deity of some sort) from  Egyptian mythology. The photograph itself shows considerable "wear and tear" but is the only remaining document of the original artifact, which was stolen from the Miskatonic University Archives in February, 1972.
Photograph courtesy of Miskatonic University.

Detail of the unidentified cephalopodic god from Egyptian antiquity shown as the central figure in the above tapestry. Photograph courtesy of Miskatonic University.

     
     Animal-headed deities appear often (and in great variety) in Egyptian mythology. The apparent exclusion (or possible omission) of some form of "sea-god" with the head of an octopus is perhaps no more than a curious coincidence. Then again... perhaps not. It's possible that this papyrus is evidence of a lost cult. There could conceivably have been a sect of ancient Egyptian society dedicated to the worship of this cephalopedic monstrosity. If so, what happened to them? Were they eradicated over theological differences with other, more established priesthoods? Or did they disappear from history deliberately for reasons of their own? Why does this particular figure appear nowhere else in the entirety of all known recovered artifacts relating to ancient Egypt?

     Consider the possibilities. If this parchment represents a heretofore unknown branch of Egyptian mythology could it be a link to older, darker mysteries? Are we seeing past the veil of time and into an age when the boundaries between the fantastic and the mundane were less concrete?

     Sometimes its better to suffer life's questions, than to live with the awful knowledge of the answers.

("Kthulhuamen" available as a print @ Arcane Apparel.)