Episodes 84-88 - The Shadow Over Innsmouth

[Inner Prop]

So you're saying that tradition of offering your wife to a visitor was a safe bet since no visitor could take you (and her) up on the offer?

[old book]

No visitor? Depends on their familiarity and tolerance of certain smells, I guess. I have heard there were a bunch of children sired by explorers during the expeditions to northern Greenland over a century ago.

[Bob Lovecraft]

No visitor? Depends on their familiarity and tolerance of certain smells, I guess. I have heard there were a bunch of children sired by explorers during the expeditions to northern Greenland over a century ago.

Well yeah. You get used to a smell. But you don't get used to lack of nookie. Proven fact.

Bob

[Inner Prop]

True dat, brah

[Graf von Altenberg Ehrenstein]

I hope nobody pointed this out before
Yesterday I was browsing over some old books of mine and had an "Oh-me-gawd-why-did-I-never-think-of-this-before" moment.
Part of the wave of archaeologic discoveries in the 1920ies and 30ies was the unearthing of a pre-sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia named the Obed- Culture (after a site near ancient Ur), a striking feature of whitch were strange humanoid figurines displaying some kind of Innsmouth Look:


Yes they `re more reptilian than ichthyoid, it `s not really a Tiara they `re wearing and the name is the Bible as well. But I think the semblance is striking. As Lovecraft `s work reflects the progress of ancient history as much as that of the natural sciences this could well have been an inspiration for the Deep Ones.

 

[T. Kelly Lee]

Graf, I think you mean "Obeid Culture" (now usually known as the Ubaid Period).  It's named after Tel al-Obeid where their sites were found! 

That being said, I sure as hell think HPL drew upon Sumerian art for his inpsirations and there is evidence he was well-schooled in what Gnostic writings were extant in his day.  I think Obed Marsh gets his name from the Obed mentioned in the Bible (Obed, the Servant of God, not Obed-Edom) - who was an ancestor of David...and, by default, an ancestor of Jesus Christ. 

To me, that seems like the kind of little joke HPL would have enjoyed!   

[Graf von Altenberg Ehrenstein]

I should have considered that the English spelling would be slightly different, as well as the typical American preference for biblical names. However, I didn `t mean to point this out as THE origin of the fishpeople but I feel there is a source of inspiration that generally does not seem to get much attention. Or at least I am not aware that it `s recognized.
In Lovecraft `s lifitime there were numerous Nameless Cities of undeterminable age with mysterious art and illegible writing systems emerging from the deserts. A goldmine for any writer of the fantastic.

[T. Kelly Lee]

Oh, yeah!  Sumerian archaeological news was HUGE in HPL's day! 

I think one of his leading influences were the popular legends of the lost city of the Rub' al Khali - the Empty Quarter - of the Arabian peninsula.  There was an exploring expedition there in 1931 that was heavily covered in the news.  Interestingly, there is a great book called The Road to Ubar on the use of space photography in actually uncovering a lost city in that region.  I love that stuff, man!