The cthulhu mythology isn't only from Lovecraft, it usually includes stories that are around lovecraft's work.
Also there are several deities that exist before cthulhu, such as degon, and the actual structure of lovecraft's writing is clearly influenced by mythology at large.
All of that being said I've got 2 more points
1) lovecraftoan mythology isn't mythology
2) religion is what I believe and mythology is what everyone else believes
I'm mostly joking about that last bit, it was a paraphrase from a book I read when I was like 12 and I really wish I remember the name of that book, but it's a really great quote that was used to illustrate that much of what we call mythology was at one point someone's legitimate belief
''religion is what I believe and mythology is what everyone else believes'' is incisive enough that I'm willing to believe it's from some Discworld book I have yet to read.
There is a book called City of Beasts by Isabel Allende that has a really similar quote (I read it in Spanish so I don't know the exact translation used).
I like your comment, but I would like to point out that the version of Dagon that you're referring to is also an original creation of H. P. Lovecraft, the mythological god Dagon is an obscure god possibly connected to agriculture, and father of Ba'al Hadad. The idea that he was connected to fish was an old mistake that Lovecraft seized on to create a patriarch for his Deep Ones.
That is true, but I think this separation is similar to the separation of many gods in that region (ba'al iirc being a great example of a god in like 5 different religions all of which being unique to each other) but I'm not very well versed in any of them, and other than the canines couldn't even guess what the names are (sorry it's a blind spot)
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u/silver-luso 9d ago
The cthulhu mythology isn't only from Lovecraft, it usually includes stories that are around lovecraft's work.
Also there are several deities that exist before cthulhu, such as degon, and the actual structure of lovecraft's writing is clearly influenced by mythology at large.
All of that being said I've got 2 more points
1) lovecraftoan mythology isn't mythology
2) religion is what I believe and mythology is what everyone else believes