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102-639: Numerous Mythos elements are associated with the Deep Ones, including the legendary town of Innsmouth , the undersea city of Y'ha-nthlei, the Esoteric Order of Dagon , and the beings known as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. After their debut in Lovecraft's tale, the sea-dwelling creatures resurfaced in the works of other authors, especially August Derleth . The Deep Ones are an ancient species of amphibious sea-dwelling humanoids, whose preferred habitat

204-552: A burnt offering ( NRSV )." When he returns from battle, his virgin daughter runs out to greet him, and Jephthah laments to her that he cannot take back his vow. She begs for, and is granted, "two months, so that I may go and wander on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my companions and I", after which "[Jephthah] did with her according to the vow he had made." Two kings of Judah , Ahaz and Manassah , sacrificed their sons. Ahaz, in 2 Kings 16:3, sacrificed his son. "... He even made his son pass through fire, according to

306-473: A ceremonial last meal. Some academics suggest there are allusions to kings being sacrificed in Irish mythology, particularly in tales of threefold deaths . The medieval Dindsenchas (Lore of Places) says that, in pagan Ireland, first-born children were sacrificed at an idol called Crom Cruach , whose worship was ended by Saint Patrick . However, this account was written by Christian scribes centuries after

408-649: A certain sort of men; though the creatures were shewn disporting like fishes in the waters of some marine grotto, or paying homage at some monolithic shrine which appeared to be under the waves as well. Of their faces and forms I dare not speak in detail; for the mere remembrance makes me grow faint. Grotesque beyond the imagination of a Poe or a Bulwer, they were damnably human in general outline despite webbed hands and feet, shockingly wide and flabby lips, glassy, bulging eyes, and other features less pleasant to recall. Curiously enough, they seemed to have been chiselled badly out of proportion with their scenic background; for one of

510-480: A college (which Salem [lacks]) ... I place the town [and] the imaginary Miskatonic [River] somewhere north of Salem—perhaps near Manchester." Dunwich is a fictional village that appeared in the H. P. Lovecraft novella " The Dunwich Horror " ( 1929 ), and is also located in Miskatonic River Valley. The inhabitants are depicted as inbred, uneducated, and very superstitious, while the town itself

612-543: A fictional village in England . Lovecraft's more famous Innsmouth is in Massachusetts . This latter Innsmouth was first identified in two of his cycle of sonnets Fungi from Yuggoth . Lovecraft called Innsmouth "a considerably twisted version of Newburyport ." Lovecraft placed Innsmouth on the coast of Essex County, Massachusetts , south of Plum Island and north of Cape Ann . The town of Ipswich, Massachusetts

714-765: A house on the Aylesbury Pike. While the phrase originated in the role-playing community, it now sees widespread usage. Lovecraft Country was the title of a 2016 novel by Matt Ruff . The novel was subsequently adapted by HBO for television. The resulting TV series, also called Lovecraft Country , premiered in August 2020. Return to Lovecraft Country was a collection of short stories set in "the New England of H.P. Lovecraft", published by Triad Entertainments in 1996. The editor, Scott David Aniolowski, has also done editorial work for Chaosium. Eternal Lovecraft ,

816-526: A priestess, and burnt together with the dead chieftain in his boat (see ship burial ). This practice is evidenced archaeologically, with many male warrior burials (such as the ship burial at Balladoole on the Isle of Man, or that at Oseberg in Norway ) also containing female remains with signs of trauma. According to Adémar de Chabannes , just before his death in 932 or 933, Rollo (founder and first ruler of

918-466: A retainer sacrifice, wherein a monarch's servants are killed in order for them to continue to serve their master in the next life. Closely related practices found in some tribal societies are cannibalism and headhunting . Human sacrifice is also known as ritual murder. Human sacrifice was practiced in many human societies beginning in prehistoric times. By the Iron Age (1st millennium BCE), with

1020-427: A sacrifice on Moriah . Abraham agrees to this command without arguing. The story ends with an angel stopping Abraham at the last minute and providing a ram, caught in some nearby bushes, to be sacrificed instead. Many Bible scholars have suggested this story's origin was a remembrance of an era when human sacrifice was abolished in favour of animal sacrifice. Another probable instance of human sacrifice mentioned in

1122-539: A setting for weird fiction : "It is the night-black Massachusetts legendary which packs the really macabre 'kick'. Here is material for a really profound study in group neuroticism; for certainly, none can deny the existence of a profoundly morbid streak in the Puritan imagination." Specifically, Lovecraft was inspired by the cities and towns in Massachusetts. However, the specific location of Lovecraft Country

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1224-627: A sharp instrument, such as a pike, driven into their heads. There is archaeological evidence of human sacrifice in Neolithic to Eneolithic Europe. The ancient ritual of expelling certain slaves, cripples, or criminals from a community to ward off disaster (known as pharmakos ), would at times involve publicly executing the chosen prisoner by throwing them off of a cliff. References to human sacrifice can be found in Greek historical accounts as well as mythology. The human sacrifice in mythology,

1326-537: A short-story collection published by Golden Gryphon Press in 1998, has a section called "Lovecraft Country". The phrase occurs in popular discussions of Lovecraft's connection to the region. The Harvard Law Record used the phrase in an October 20, 2005, article: Many Lovecraft stories take place in "Lovecraft Country"—the fictional North Shore towns of Arkham, Innsmouth, Kingsport, and Dunwich (perhaps fictional equivalents of Ipswich, Salem/Danvers, Marblehead, or Newburyport). The most important portion stretches along

1428-579: A show of gratitude after a victorious battle. Ritual cannibalism also took place, in order to gain the power of the enemy. The Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum by Adam of Bremen written at the end of the 11th century claims that behind the island of Kuramaa there is an island called Aestland (Estonia), whose inhabitants do not believe in the Christian God. Instead, they worship dragons and birds (dracones adorant cum volucribus) to whom people bought from slavers are sacrificed. According to

1530-473: A single child cemetery called the "Tophet" by archaeologists, an estimated 20,000 urns were deposited. Plutarch ( c.  46  – c.  120 CE ) mentions the practice, as do Tertullian , Orosius , Diodorus Siculus and Philo . Livy and Polybius do not. The Bible asserts that children were sacrificed at a place called the tophet ("roasting place") to the god Moloch . According to Diodorus Siculus's Bibliotheca historica , "There

1632-422: A special chamber was built to bury them alive. This aim was to please the gods and restore balance to Rome. Human sacrifices, in the form of burying individuals alive, were not uncommon during times of panic in ancient Rome. However, the burial of unchaste Vestal Virgins was also practiced in times of peace. Their chasteness was thought to be a safeguard of the city, and even in punishment, the state of their bodies

1734-688: A thanksgiving for victory in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest . Jordanes reported the Goths sacrificing prisoners of war to Mars , suspending the victims' severed arms from tree branches. Tacitus further refers to those who have transgressed certain societal rules being drowned and placed in wetlands . This potentially explains finds of bog bodies dating to the Roman Iron Age although none show signs of having died by drowning. By

1836-719: A valuable commodity in Innsmouth, a fishing town. The central beings worshipped by the Order were the Father Dagon and Mother Hydra , and, to a lesser extent, Cthulhu . Dagon and Hydra were seen largely as intermediaries between the various gods rather than as gods themselves. Even so, the cultists sacrificed various locals to the Deep Ones at specific times in exchange for a limitless supply of gold and fish. When they ran out of locals, they would go to other places to kidnap people to be sacrificed. Eventually, things became so bad that

1938-560: Is based on Marblehead, Massachusetts , a town bordering Salem . In his letters, Lovecraft described Kingsport as being an idealized version of Marblehead. Its rocky cliffs were based on those in Marblehead and Rockport. Kingsport is, according to Will Murray , adjacent to Innsmouth . The town's exact location moved around according to Lovecraft's literary needs. Lovecraft created Kingsport before he saw its real-life model. When Lovecraft visited Marblehead in 1922, he became enamored of

2040-479: Is described as being surrounded by "great rings of rough-hewn stone columns on the hilltops", which are presumed to have been built by the Pocumtucks . Innsmouth ( / ˈ ɪ n z m ə θ / ) is a setting of The Shadow over Innsmouth (written 1931, published 1936 ), and referenced in later works. Lovecraft first used the name "Innsmouth" in his 1920 short story " Celephaïs " ( 1920 ), where it refers to

2142-693: Is described as economically poor with many decrepit or abandoned buildings. Although Dunwich in Suffolk , England is pronounced "DUN-ich," Lovecraft never specified how he preferred his Dunwich be pronounced. Lovecraft is said to have based Dunwich on Athol, Massachusetts , and other towns in Western Massachusetts, with him specifically citing "the decadent Massachusetts countryside around Springfield – say Wilbraham , Monson , and Hampden ." S. T. Joshi has also seen Dunwich as being influenced by East Haddam , Connecticut , location of

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2244-478: Is described in "When Death Came to Bod Reef"; the city's history in "Herr Goering's Artefact" and the life of the survivors in "Three Weeks of Bliss". Innsmouth Lovecraft Country is a term coined for the New England setting used by H. P. Lovecraft in many of his weird fiction stories, which combines real and fictitious locations. This setting has been elaborated on by other writers working in

2346-417: Is hidden away from outsiders. Eventually, however, the hybrid will be compelled to slip into the sea to live with the Deep Ones in one of their undersea cities. Mother Hydra and her consort Father Dagon are both Deep Ones overgrown after millennia ruling over their lesser brethren. Together with Cthulhu, they form the triad of gods worshipped by the Deep Ones (their names are inspired by Dragon, or Dagon ,

2448-476: Is known to have created the name of the Miskatonic River from Algonquian root words. Murray believes Lovecraft used a similar method to come up with Manuxet : man means "island" and uxet translates to "at the large part of the river"; thus, when combined Manuxet means "Island at the large part of the river". Murray contends that this meaning is well suited to Innsmouth's placement at the mouth of

2550-622: Is literary evidence for infant sacrifice being practiced in Carthage , however, current anthropological analyses have not found physical evidence to back up these claims. There is a Tophet, where infant remains have been found, but after current analytical techniques, it has been concluded this area is more representative of the naturally high infant mortality rate. There is some evidence that ancient Celtic peoples practiced human sacrifice. Accounts of Celtic human sacrifice come from Roman and Greek sources. Julius Caesar and Strabo wrote that

2652-493: Is not known, but one resident is said to have lived there for 80,000 years. In Lovecraft's story, the U.S. government torpedoed Devil's Reef, and Y'ha-nthlei was presumed destroyed, although the ending of the story implies it survived. The name Y'ha-nthlei may have been inspired by the Lord Dunsany character "Yoharneth-Lahai", "the god of little dreams and fancies" who "sendeth little dreams out of PEGANA to please

2754-404: Is said to be a near neighbor, where many Innsmouth residents do their shopping; Rowley, Massachusetts , another neighboring town, is said to be to the northwest. This would place Innsmouth in the vicinity of Essex Bay. The description of the fictional Massachusetts village is said to be based on the real fishing town of Fleetwood , Lancashire which bears a marked resemblance to the description of

2856-549: Is the deep ocean. A description is offered by the narrator of The Shadow Over Innsmouth : I think their predominant color was a greyish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. I

2958-462: Is typically intended to bring good fortune and to pacify the gods, for example in the context of the dedication of a completed building like a temple or bridge. Fertility was another common theme in ancient religious sacrifices, such as sacrifices to the Aztec god of agriculture Xipe Totec . In ancient Japan, legends talk about hitobashira ("human pillar"), in which maidens were buried alive at

3060-877: Is variable, as it was moved according to Lovecraft's literary needs. The location of Arkham was moved, as Lovecraft decided that it would have been destroyed by the Quabbin Reservoir , which was created to supply Boston with fresh water. This is alluded to in " The Colour Out of Space ", as the "blasted heath" is submerged by the creation of a fictionalized version of the reservoir. Lovecraft first mentioned Arkham's Miskatonic University in " Herbert West–Reanimator ", written in 1921–22. He added Dunwich to his imaginary landscape in 1928's " The Dunwich Horror ", and expanded it to include Innsmouth in 1931's The Shadow over Innsmouth . Other Lovecraft stories that make use of Lovecraft Country settings include " The Festival ", " The Colour out of Space ", " The Strange High House in

3162-535: The deus ex machina salvation in some versions of Iphigeneia (who was about to be sacrificed by her father Agamemnon ) and her replacement with a deer by the goddess Artemis , may be a vestigial memory of the abandonment and discrediting of the practice of human sacrifice among the Greeks in favour of animal sacrifice. In ancient Rome, human sacrifice was infrequent but documented. Roman authors often contrast their own behavior with that of people who would commit

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3264-690: The Argei , in which straw figures were tossed into the Tiber river , may have been a substitute for an original offering of elderly men. Cicero claimed that puppets thrown from the Pons Sublicius by the Vestal Virgins in a processional ceremony were substitutes for the past sacrifice of old men. After the Roman defeat at Cannae , two Gauls and two Greeks in male-female couples were buried under

3366-638: The Bible point to an awareness of and disdain of human sacrifice in the history of ancient Near Eastern practice. During a battle with the Israelites , the King of Moab gives his firstborn son and heir as a whole burnt offering ( olah , as used of the Temple sacrifice) ( 2 Kings 3:27). The Bible then recounts that, following the King's sacrifice, "There was great indignation [or wrath] against Israel" and that

3468-606: The Cthulhu Mythos . The phrase was not in use during Lovecraft's own lifetime; it was coined by Keith Herber for the Lovecraftian role-playing game Call of Cthulhu . The phrase is one of several attempts to label the setting of Lovecraft's works. Alternative phrases include Arkham County , Miskatonic County , and the Miskatonic region . The term was coined by Keith Herber and then popularized by Chaosium ,

3570-538: The Esoteric Order of Dagon , based on a religion he had learned from certain Polynesian islanders in his travels. The town's fishing industry soon experienced a great upsurge. Then in 1846, a mysterious plague struck the town, killing most of the population, but in reality, the deaths were caused by the Deep Ones in league with Obed Marsh. When Marsh and his followers were arrested, the sacrificial rites ceased and

3672-523: The Forum Boarium , in a stone chamber used for the purpose at least once before. In Livy 's description of these sacrifices, he distances the practice from Roman tradition and asserts that the past human sacrifices evident in the same location were "wholly alien to the Roman spirit." The rite was apparently repeated in 113 BCE, preparatory to an invasion of Gaul. They buried the two Greeks and

3774-469: The Gauls burnt animal and human sacrifices in a large wickerwork figure, known as a wicker man , and said the human victims were usually criminals; while Posidonius wrote that druids who oversaw human sacrifices foretold the future by watching the death throes of the victims. Caesar also wrote that slaves of Gaulish chiefs would be burnt along with the body of their master as part of his funeral rites. In

3876-479: The Germanic peoples , being resorted to in exceptional situations arising from environmental crises (crop failure, drought, famine) or social crises (war), often thought to derive at least in part from the failure of the king to establish or maintain prosperity and peace ( árs ok friðar ) in the lands entrusted to him. In later Scandinavian practice, human sacrifice appears to have become more institutionalised and

3978-500: The Livonian Chronicle , describing the events after the Battle of Ümera , "Estonians had seized some Germans, Livs, and Latvians, and some of them they simply killed, others they burned alive and tore the shirts off some of them, carved crosses on their backs with a sword and then beheaded". The Chronicle explicitly states they were sacrificed "to their gods" (diis suis). Human sacrifice was not particularly common among

4080-552: The Merrimack River and probably invented the name from root words of an Algonquian language. To support his claim, Murray gives two reasons. First, even though Newburyport was an inspiration for Innsmouth, it is clearly a separate location since Lovecraft himself placed the real-life Newburyport to the north of Innsmouth in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". Murray thinks Lovecraft actually based Innsmouth's location on Gloucester, Massachusetts on Cape Ann . Secondly, Lovecraft

4182-523: The Roman occupation , to the accompaniment of revelry and sacrifices in the sacred groves of Andate . It is important to note, however, that the Romans benefited from making the Celts sound barbaric, and scholars are more skeptical about these accounts now than in the past. There is some archaeological evidence of human sacrifice among Celtic peoples, although it is rare. Ritual beheading and headhunting

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4284-568: The Semitic fertility deity, and the Hydra of Greek mythology ). Mother Hydra is not to be confused with the entity in Henry Kuttner 's story "Hydra". " Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei " is the only Deep One city named by Lovecraft. It is described as a great undersea metropolis below Devil's Reef just off the coast of Massachusetts , near the town of Innsmouth . Its exact age

4386-507: The early dynastic period at Abydos , when on the death of a King he would be accompanied by servants, and possibly high officials, who would continue to serve him in eternal life. The skeletons that were found had no obvious signs of trauma, leading to speculation that the giving up of life to serve the King may have been a voluntary act, possibly carried out in a drug-induced state. At about 2800 BCE, any possible evidence of such practices disappeared, though echoes are perhaps to be seen in

4488-498: The " Devil's Hopyard ", the " Moodus Noises ", and a witch tradition. Lovecraft places Dunwich in "north central Massachusetts", found by travellers "tak[ing] the wrong fork at the junction of the Aylesbury pike just beyond Dean's Corners." Aylesbury and Dean's Corners are both Lovecraft creations, neither of which appears in any other of his stories, though Aylesbury is mentioned in his poem sequence Fungi From Yuggoth . Dunwich

4590-589: The 10th century, Germanic paganism had become restricted to the Norse people . One account by Ahmad ibn Fadlan in 922 claims Varangian warriors were sometimes buried with enslaved women, in the belief they would become their wives in Valhalla . He describes the funeral of a Varangian chieftain, in which a slave girl volunteered to be buried with him. After ten days of festivities, she was given an intoxicating drink, repeatedly raped by other chiefs, stabbed to death by

4692-579: The 13th-14th centuries, the Lithuanians and Prussians made sacrifices to their pagan gods at their sacred places, alka hills , battlefields and near natural objects ( sea , rivers, lakes, etc.). In 1389 following the military victories in the land of Medininkai the Samogitians cast lots which indicated Marquard von Raschau, the commander of Klaipėda (Memel) , as a suitable victim for gods and burnt him on horseback in full armour. It possibly

4794-490: The 1st century AD, Roman writer Lucan mentioned human sacrifices to the Gaulish gods Esus , Toutatis and Taranis . In a 4th-century commentary on Lucan, an unnamed author added that sacrifices to Esus were hanged from a tree, those to Toutatis were drowned , and those to Taranis were burned . According to the 2nd-century Roman writer Cassius Dio , Boudica 's forces impaled Roman captives during her rebellion against

4896-735: The Bible is Jephthah 's sacrifice of his daughter in Judges 11. Jephthah vows to sacrifice to God whatever comes to greet him at the door when he returns home if he is victorious in his war against the Ammonites . The vow is stated in the Book of Judges 11:31: "Then whoever comes of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord's, to be offered up by me as

4998-582: The British fleet. In the 19th century, sea trade dwindled and the town turned to fishing as the main industry. Kingsport's economy continued to dwindle into the 20th century and today relies primarily on tourism. The Manuxet River is a fictional river that runs through Massachusetts and empties into the sea at the town of Innsmouth. Although there is a Manuxet River in Worcester, Massachusetts , Will Murray believes that Lovecraft based his fictional Manuxet on

5100-586: The Dark ", this broader area is sometimes to also be considered part of Lovecraft Country. The fictional Massachusetts city of Arkham is featured in many of Lovecraft's stories, and those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers. Arkham, in the Miskatonic River Valley, is the home of Miskatonic University , an institution which finances the expeditions in the novellas, At the Mountains of Madness (1936) and The Shadow Out of Time (1936). Arkham Sanitarium appears in

5202-608: The Deep Ones retaliated. The cult activity resumed, and interbreeding increased, spawning deformed fish-humans. Consequently, Innsmouth was shunned for many years, until 1927 when it came under investigation by federal authorities for alleged bootlegging . The next year, an incursion by the authorities detonated explosives in Devil Reef off the coast. The villagers were arrested and disappeared mysteriously in government custody. The town of Kingsport first appeared in Lovecraft's 1920 short story " The Terrible Old Man ". Kingsport

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5304-600: The Israelites had to raise their siege of the Moabite capital and go away. This verse had perplexed many later Jewish and Christian commentators, who tried to explain what the impact of the Moabite King's sacrifice was, to make those under siege emboldened while disheartening the Israelites, make God angry at the Israelites or the Israelites fear his anger, make Chemosh (the Moabite god) angry, or otherwise. Whatever

5406-628: The Manuxet. And Cape Ann itself (the presumed site of Innsmouth) is connected to the mainland by only a thin strip of land and might be thought of as an island. Innsmouth was attacked by the U.S. Treasury Department. During the assault in February, the frozen Manuxet allowed the attackers across to the town. Game historian Stu Horvath defined four products published by Chaosium between 1990 and 1992 as "Lovecraft Country": Arkham Unveiled (1990), Return to Dunwich (1991), Kingsport: The City in

5508-832: The Miskatonic River valley, from Dunwich in its far western headwaters to its mouth entering the Atlantic Ocean between Arkham , Kingsport, and Martin's Beach ." These locations, along with Innsmouth , are the most significant locations in Lovecraft Country. However, as certain Lovecraft stories take place in other areas of New England, including southern hills of Vermont (the setting of The Whisperer in Darkness ) as well as Lovecraft's hometown of Providence, Rhode Island , where he set such works as The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and " The Haunter of

5610-520: The Mist " (1926, published 1931). A reprise of Lovecraft's epiphany appeared in fictional form at the end of Lovecraft's " The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath " (1926-7, published posthumously in 1943). "Dream-Quest" featured Lovecraft's recurring character of Randolph Carter , popularly thought of as an idealized representation of Lovecraft himself. Carter, by Lovecraft's account, grew up in Kingsport. In

5712-581: The Mist ", " The Dreams in the Witch House ", and " The Thing on the Doorstep ". August Derleth , Lovecraft's friend, discouraged other Cthulhu Mythos writers from setting their stories in Lovecraft's New England. But he himself attempted to fill in the blanks of the setting, particularly in his posthumous "collaborations" with Lovecraft—actually Derleth's stories based on fragments, notes or ideas that Lovecraft left behind after his death. The Lurker at

5814-574: The Mists (1991), and Escape from Innsmouth (1992), calling them collectively "a massive collection of secrets and horrors." Human sacrifices Note: Varies by jurisdiction Note: Varies by jurisdiction Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual , which is usually intended to please or appease gods , a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment , an authoritative/priestly figure, spirits of dead ancestors or as

5916-539: The Old Ones, who have left behind magical artifacts that can keep them in check. This detail is one of the vestigial hints that August Derleth developed into the mostly unnamed Elder Gods. The Esoteric Order of Dagon was the primary religion in Innsmouth after Marsh returned from the South Seas with the dark religion circa 1838. It quickly took root due to its promises of expensive gold artifacts and fish. Fish were

6018-652: The Threshold is set in Billington's Wood , a fictional forest north of Arkham, while "Witches' Hollow" takes place in the titular valley in the hills to the west of the town. The title of "The Fisherman of Falcon Point" refers to a promontory on the Atlantic coast south of Innsmouth. "Wentworth's Day" and "The Horror from the Middle Span" take place in the area north of Dunwich, while "The Gable Window" concerns

6120-537: The US government sent the police force to apprehend Marsh and his cult. The Esoteric Order of Dagon (which masqueraded as the local Masonic movement) had three oaths that members had to take. The first was an oath of secrecy, the second, an oath of loyalty, and the third, an oath to marry a Deep One and bear or sire its child. Due to the latter oath, interbreeding became the norm in Innsmouth, resulting in widespread deformities and many half-breeds. The Esoteric Order of Dagon

6222-691: The Viking Duchy of Normandy ) performed human sacrifices to appease the pagan gods while at the same time giving gifts to the churches in Normandy . In the 11th century, Adam of Bremen wrote that human and animal sacrifices were made at the Temple at Gamla Uppsala in Sweden. He wrote that every ninth year, nine men and nine of every animal were sacrificed and their bodies hung in a sacred grove . The Historia Norwegiæ and Ynglinga saga refer to

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6324-414: The ability to instill fear. Lovecraft first used a New England setting in his 1920 short story " The Terrible Old Man ", set in Kingsport. " The Picture in the House " (written later in 1920), is the first of his stories to mention both Arkham and the Miskatonic Valley. The story begins with a manifesto for why the New England countryside is a fitting backdrop for his horror stories: the true epicure of

6426-663: The abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel (NRSV)." King Manasseh sacrificed his sons in 2 Chronicles  33:6. "He made his son pass through fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom  ... He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger (NRSV)." The valley symbolized hell in later religions, such as Christianity , as a result. According to Roman and Greek sources, Phoenicians and Carthaginians sacrificed infants to their gods. The bones of numerous infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites in modern times, but their cause of death remain controversial. In

6528-407: The acquiescence of the children as a product of their youthful trustfulness. The accuracy of such stories is disputed by some modern historians and archaeologists. Retainer sacrifice was practised within the royal tombs of ancient Mesopotamia . Courtiers, guards, musicians, handmaidens, and grooms were presumed to have committed ritual suicide by taking poison. A 2009 examination of skulls from

6630-453: The arena to be little more than human sacrifice. Over time, participants became criminals and slaves, and their death was considered a sacrifice to the Manes on behalf of the dead. Political rumors sometimes centered around sacrifice and in doing so, aimed to liken individuals to barbarians and show that the individual had become uncivilized. Human sacrifice also became a marker and defining characteristic of magic and bad religion. There

6732-503: The associated developments in religion (the Axial Age ), human sacrifice was becoming less common throughout Africa , Europe , and Asia , and came to be looked down upon as barbaric during classical antiquity . In the Americas , however, human sacrifice continued to be practiced, by some, to varying degrees until the European colonization of the Americas . Today, human sacrifice has become extremely rare. Modern secular laws treat human sacrifices as murder . Most major religions in

6834-480: The base of or near some constructions to protect the buildings against disasters or enemy attacks, and almost identical accounts appear in the Balkans ( The Building of Skadar and Bridge of Arta ). For the re-consecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they killed about 80,400 prisoners over the course of four days. According to Ross Hassig , author of Aztec Warfare , "between 10,000 and 80,400 persons" were sacrificed in

6936-510: The burial of statues of servants in Old Kingdom tombs. Servants of both royalty and high court officials were slain to accompany their masters into the next world. The number of retainers buried surrounding the king's tomb was much greater than those of high court officials, however, again suggesting the greater importance of the pharaoh. For example, King Djer had 318 retainer sacrifices buried in his tomb, and 269 retainer sacrifices buried in enclosures surrounding his tomb. References in

7038-519: The ceremony. Human sacrifice can also have the intention of winning the gods' favor in warfare. In Homeric legend, Iphigeneia was to be sacrificed by her father Agamemnon to appease Artemis so she would allow the Greeks to wage the Trojan War . In some notions of an afterlife , the deceased will benefit from victims killed at his funeral. Mongols , Scythians , early Egyptians and various Mesoamerican chiefs could take most of their household, including servants and concubines , with them to

7140-400: The coast of the Levant extending north into Asia Minor and west to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Most of the land was arid and the religious culture of the entire region centered on fertility and rain. Many of the religious rituals, including human sacrifice, had an agricultural focus. Blood was mixed with soil to improve its fertility. There may be evidence of retainer sacrifice in

7242-503: The creatures was shewn in the act of killing a whale represented as but little larger than himself. A significant difference between the two narratives is that the single creature observed by the narrator is of a vast size, whereas the beings seen off Innsmouth are roughly human in scale. Despite being primarily marine creatures, Deep Ones can survive on land for extended periods of time. They possess biological immortality, and never die except by accident or violence. They worship twin deities,

7344-462: The cult of whom they have introduced among the human population of Innsmouth, who know them as "Father Dagon and Mother Hydra" - however, the elderly derelict (and Order of Dagon initiate) Zadok Allen invokes Cthulhu in a moment of strong emotion, and Robert M. Price has suggested that "Dagon" may have merely been "the closest biblical analogy to the real object of worship of the deep ones" The Deep Ones are or were opposed by mysterious beings known as

7446-572: The early nineteenth century, and later a minor factory center." The loss of sailors in shipwrecks, and the War of 1812 , caused the town's profitable trade with the South Seas to falter; by 1828, the only fleet still running that route was that of Captain Obed Marsh , the head of one of the town's leading families. Prior to the events of the story, in 1840, Marsh starts a cult in Innsmouth known as

7548-508: The explanation, evidently at the time of writing, such an act of sacrificing the firstborn son and heir, while prohibited by Israelites ( Deuteronomy 12:31; 18:9–12), was considered as an emergency measure in the Ancient Near East, to be performed in exceptional cases where divine favor was desperately needed. The binding of Isaac appears in the Book of Genesis (22), where God tests Abraham by asking him to present his son as

7650-821: The head of a killed adversary, for ceremonial or magical purposes, or for reasons of prestige. It was found in many pre-modern tribal societies . Human sacrifice may be a ritual practiced in a stable society, and may even be conducive to enhancing societal unity (see: Sociology of religion ), both by creating a bond unifying the sacrificing community, and by combining human sacrifice and capital punishment , by removing individuals that have an adverse effect on societal stability (criminals, religious heretics, foreign slaves or prisoners of war). However, outside of civil religion , human sacrifice may also result in outbursts of blood frenzy and mass killings that destabilize society. Many cultures show traces of prehistoric human sacrifice in their mythologies and religious texts, but ceased

7752-407: The heinous act of human sacrifice, as human sacrifice was often looked down upon. These authors make it clear that such practices were from a much more uncivilized time in the past, far removed. It is thought that many ritualistic celebrations and dedications to gods used to involve human sacrifice but have now been replaced with symbolic offerings. Dionysius of Halicarnassus says that the ritual of

7854-464: The hybrid gets older, he or she begins to acquire the so-called "Innsmouth Look" as he or she takes on more and more attributes of the Deep One race: the ears shrink, the eyes bulge and become unblinking, the head narrows and gradually goes bald, the skin becomes scabrous as it changes into scales, and the neck develops folds which later become gills. When the hybrid becomes too obviously non-human, it

7956-407: The land-dwellers give human sacrifices and a promise of "mixing"—the mating of humans with Deep Ones. Although the Deep One hybrid offspring are born with the appearance of a normal human being, the individual will eventually transform into a Deep One, gaining immortality—by default—only when the transformation is complete. The transformation usually occurs when the individual reaches middle age. As

8058-557: The modern day condemn the practice. For example in Hinduism , the Shrimad Bhagavatam condemns human sacrifice and cannibalism, warning of severe punishment in the afterlife for those who commit such acts. Human sacrifice has been practiced on a number of different occasions and in many different cultures. The various rationales behind human sacrifice are the same that motivate religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice

8160-415: The next world. This is sometimes called a "retainer sacrifice", as the leader's retainers would be sacrificed along with their master, so that they could continue to serve him in the afterlife. Another purpose is divination from the body parts of the victim. According to Strabo , Celts stabbed a victim with a sword and divined the future from his death spasms. Headhunting is the practice of taking

8262-559: The people of Earth." Other authors have invented Deep One cities in other parts of the ocean, including Ahu-Y'hloa near Cornwall and G'll-Hoo, near the volcanic island of Surtsey off the coast of Iceland . Anders Fager has described the city of "Ya' Dich-Gho" as located in the Stockholm skerries. It is accidentally destroyed in 1982 during a Swedish submarine-hunt. At least two surviving Deep Ones live in Stockholm. One of them sells aquarist's supplies. The destruction of Ya' Dich-Gho

8364-506: The practice before the onset of historical records. Some see the story of Abraham and Isaac ( Genesis 22) as an example of an etiological myth, explaining the abolition of human sacrifice. The Vedic Purushamedha (literally "human sacrifice") is already a purely symbolic act in its earliest attestation. According to Pliny the Elder , human sacrifice in ancient Rome was abolished by a senatorial decree in 97 BCE, although by this time

8466-511: The practice had already become so rare that the decree was mostly a symbolic act. Human sacrifice once abolished is typically replaced by either animal sacrifice, or by the mock-sacrifice of effigies , such as the Argei in ancient Rome. Successful agricultural cities had already emerged in the Near East by the Neolithic , some protected behind stone walls. Jericho is the best known of these cities but other similar settlements existed along

8568-572: The priests they blind, from others they brutally sever their hands and other limbs and wrap what is left behind in straws and burn them alive." There have been found bog graves in Estonia that have been interpreted to have been part of human sacrifice. According to Aliis Moora, mostly enemy prisoners of war were sacrificed, the main reason indicated in the Livonian Chronicle as alleviating crop failure. Sacrifices were also performed as

8670-528: The producers of the Lovecraftian role-playing game Call of Cthulhu . Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi refers to the area as the Miskatonic region, after its fictional river and university . Lovecraft biographer Lin Carter calls it Miskatonic County, and the film Color Out of Space refers to it as Arkham County, although Lovecraft indicates that at least some of his fictional towns were located in

8772-423: The real-life Essex County of Massachusetts . Just as Arkham County is fictitious, Matt Ruff places some of the events of his book Lovecraft Country in the equally fictitious Devon County of Massachusetts. Setting plays a major role in Lovecraft's fiction. Lovecraft Country, a fictionalized version of New England, serves as a central hub for his mythos . It represents the history, culture, and folklore of

8874-426: The region, as interpreted by Lovecraft, who associated himself with the region. These attributes are exaggerated and altered to provide a base upon which his stories could be constructed. The names of the locations in the region were directly influenced by the names of real locations in the region, which was done to increase their realism. Lovecraft's stories use their connections with New England to imbue themselves with

8976-453: The royal cemetery at Ur , discovered in Iraq in the 1920s by a team led by C. Leonard Woolley , appears to support a more grisly interpretation of human sacrifices associated with elite burials in ancient Mesopotamia than had previously been recognized. Palace attendants, as part of royal mortuary ritual, were not dosed with poison to meet death serenely. Instead, they were put to death by having

9078-484: The short story " The Thing on the Doorstep ". It is said in " Herbert West—Reanimator " that the town was devastated by a typhoid outbreak in 1905. The precise location of Arkham is unspecified in Lovecraft's work, although it is assumed to be close to both Innsmouth and Dunwich. In a letter to F. Lee Baldwin dated April 29, 1934, Lovecraft wrote that "[my] mental picture of Arkham is of a town something like Salem in atmosphere [and] style of houses, but more hilly [and] with

9180-464: The supposed events and may be based on biblical traditions about the god Moloch . In Britain, the medieval legends of Dinas Emrys and of Saint Oran of Iona mention foundation sacrifices , whereby people were ritually killed and buried under foundations to ensure the building's safety. The Waldensians sect was later accused of child sacrifice by the Church. According to written sources from

9282-423: The terrible, to whom a new thrill of unutterable ghastliness is the chief end and justification of existence, esteem most of all the ancient, lonely farmhouses of backwoods New England; for there the dark elements of strength, solitude, grotesqueness, and ignorance combine to form the perfection of the hideous. In a 1930 letter to Robert E. Howard , Lovecraft attempted to explain his fascination with New England as

9384-547: The town. In 1929 he wrote with much feeling of seeing the snow-covered town at sunset and of experiencing his "first stupefying glance of MARBLEHEAD'S huddled and archaick roofs". Indeed, "that instant—about 4:05 to 4:10 pm., Dec. 17, 1922—[was] the most powerful single emotional climax during my nearly forty years of existence." Lovecraft used Kingsport as a setting for his short stories " The Terrible Old Man " (written 1920, published 1921), " The Festival " (written 1923, published 1925), and " The Strange High House in

9486-851: The two Gauls alive as a plea to the gods to save Rome from destruction at the hands of Hannibal . According to Pliny the Elder , human sacrifice was banned by law during the consulship of Publius Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus in 97 BCE, although by this time it was so rare that the decree was largely symbolic. Sulla's Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis in 82 BC also included punishments for human sacrifice. The Romans also had traditions that centered around ritual murder, but which they did not consider to be sacrifice. Such practices included burying unchaste Vestal Virgins alive and drowning visibly intersex children. These were seen as reactions to extraordinary circumstances as opposed to being part of Roman tradition. Vestal Virgins who were accused of being unchaste were put to death, and

9588-545: The village. Neil Gaiman 's short story "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" explains that the American Innsmouth was named after an older English village. Lovecraft writes that Innsmouth is in a horrendous state of decay, with many of the buildings rotting and on the point of collapse. The town was "founded in 1643, noted for shipbuilding before the American Revolution , a seat of great marine prosperity in

9690-643: The works of later writers, the town of Kingsport is described as having been founded in 1639 by colonists from southern England and the Channel Islands , where it soon became a seaport and center for shipbuilding. Influenced by the Salem witch trials , the town hanged four alleged witches in 1692. During the American Revolutionary War , the port was briefly blockaded by the British when the town's merchants turned to privateering against

9792-624: Was a major religious and cultural practice that has found copious support in the archaeological record, including the numerous skulls found in Londinium 's River Walbrook and the twelve headless corpses at the Gaulish sanctuary of Gournay-sur-Aronde . Several ancient Irish bog bodies have been interpreted as kings who were ritually killed, presumably after serious crop failures or other disasters. Some were deposited in bogs on territorial boundaries (which were seen as liminal places) or near royal inauguration sites, and some were found to have eaten

9894-419: Was in their city a bronze image of Cronus extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire." Plutarch, however, claims that the children were already dead at the time, having been killed by their parents, whose consent – as well as that of the children – was required. Tertullian explains

9996-439: Was preserved in order to maintain the peace. Captured enemy leaders were only occasionally executed at the conclusion of a Roman triumph , and the Romans themselves did not consider these deaths a sacrificial offering. Gladiator combat was thought by the Romans to have originated as fights to the death among war captives at the funerals of Roman generals, and Christian polemicists , such as Tertullian , considered deaths in

10098-622: Was repeated periodically as part of a larger sacrifice (according to Adam of Bremen , every nine years). Evidence of human sacrifice by Germanic pagans before the Viking Age depend on archaeology and on a few accounts in Greco-Roman ethnography . Roman writer Tacitus reported the Suebians making human sacrifices to gods he interpreted as Mercury and Isis . He also claimed that Germans sacrificed Roman commanders and officers as

10200-421: Was seemingly destroyed when one of Obed Marsh's "lost descendants" sent the U.S. Treasury Department to seize the town. As a result, the town was more or less destroyed and the Order was thought disbanded. The backstory of The Shadow over Innsmouth involves a bargain between Deep Ones and humans, in which the aquatic species provides plentiful fishing and gold in the form of strangely formed jewelry. In return,

10302-420: Was somehow glad that they had no more than four limbs. Their croaking, baying voices, clearly used for articulate speech, held all the dark shades of expression which their staring faces lacked ... They were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design—living and horrible. A very similar description is provided in the much-earlier story Dagon : I think that these things were supposed to depict men—at least,

10404-557: Was the last human sacrifice in medieval Europe. Pope Gregory IX described in a papal letter how the Tavastians in Finland sacrificed Christians to their pagan gods: "The little children, to whom the light of Christ was revealed in baptism, they violently tore from this light and killed, and adult men, after pulling out their entrails, they sacrifice them to evil spirits and force others to run around trees until death, and some of

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