Editing Shub-Niggurath (section)

{{short description|Fictional deity in the Cthulhu Mythos}}
{{about|the fictional deity|the French band|Shub-Niggurath (band)}}
{{Infobox character
| name = Shub-Niggurath
| series = [[Cthulhu Mythos]]
| image = Shub-Niggurath.jpg
| caption = Artistic portrayal of Shub-Niggurath, along with her "Thousand Young"
| first = "[[The Last Test]]"
| last = 
| creator = [[H. P. Lovecraft]]
| portrayer = 
| voice = 
| nickname = "The All Mother"
| alias = The Black Goat with thousand young
| species = Other God/Outer God
| gender = Female
| occupation = One of the Outer gods and a member of the Court of [[Azathoth]]
| spouse = [[Hastur]] (in the present) and Yog-sothoth (in the past)
| children = Ithaqua, Zhar, Lloigor and the Dark Youngs of Shub-Niggurath (with Hastur) and Nug and Yeb (with Yog-sothoth)
| home = Yaddith
| title = Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young
}}

'''Shub-Niggurath''' is a [[deity]] created by [[H. P. Lovecraft]]. She is often associated with the phrase "The Black [[Goat]] of the Woods with a Thousand Young". The only other name by which Lovecraft referred to her was "Lord of the Wood" in his story ''[[The Whisperer in Darkness]]''.<ref name=Joshi>{{cite book |last1=Joshi |first1=S.T. |last2=Schultz |first2=David E. |title=An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia |date=2004 |publisher=Hippocampus Press |isbn=978-0974878911 |pages=296–298}}</ref>

Shub-Niggurath is first mentioned in Lovecraft's revision story "[[The Last Test]]" ([[1928 in literature|1928]]); she is not described by Lovecraft, but is frequently mentioned or called upon in incantations. Most of her development as a literary figure was carried out by other Mythos authors, including [[August Derleth]], [[Robert Bloch]], and [[Ramsey Campbell]].

Lovecraft explicitly defined Shub-Niggurath as a [[mother goddess]] in ''[[The Mound (novella)|The Mound]]'', where he calls her "Shub-Niggurath, the All-Mother".<ref name="auto">H. P. Lovecraft writing as Zealia Bishop, "The Mound", ''The Horror in the Museum'', pp. 144–145.</ref> He describes her as a kind of [[Astarte]] in the same story.<ref name="auto"/> In ''Out of the Aeons'', she is one of the deities siding with humanity against "hostile gods".<ref name="auto1">H. P. Lovecraft writing as Hazel Heald, "Out of the Aeons", ''The Horror in the Museum'', pp. 273–274; Price, p. xiii.</ref>

August Derleth classified Shub-Niggurath as a [[Great Old One]], but the ''[[Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game)|Call of Cthulhu]]'' role-playing game classifies her as an [[Outer God]]. The ''[[CthulhuTech]]'' role-playing game, in turn, returns to Derleth's classification of Shub-Niggurath as a Great Old One. Shub Niggurath also had children with Hastur in present as she is the mate of Hastur, and in the past she had offsprings with Yog-sothoth too.