Editing R'lyeh

{{Short description|Fictional lost city in "The Call of Cthulhu"}}
[[File:R'lyeh locations.png|upright=1.35|thumb|The location of R'lyeh given by Lovecraft was {{coord|47|9|S|126|43|W}} in the southern Pacific Ocean. August Derleth placed it at about {{coord|49|51|S|128|34|W}}. Both locations are close to the Pacific [[Pole of inaccessibility#Oceanic pole of inaccessibility|pole of inaccessibility]] or [[Point Nemo|"Nemo" point]], {{coord|48|52.6|S|123|23.6|W}}, a point in the ocean farthest from any land mass.]]
'''R'lyeh''' is a fictional [[lost city]] that was first mentioned in the [[H. P. Lovecraft]] short story "[[The Call of Cthulhu]]", first published in ''[[Weird Tales]]'' in February 1928.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV11N02192802/page/n1/mode/2up Weird Tales (1928-02)]</ref> R'lyeh is a sunken city in the [[Pacific Ocean|South Pacific]] and the prison of the entity called [[Cthulhu]].

==Description==

{{quote|The nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh...was built in measureless eons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars. There lay great Cthulhu and his hordes, hidden in green slimy vaults.|H. P. Lovecraft, "[[The Call of Cthulhu]]" (1928)}}

[[Norwegian people|Norwegian]] sailor [[The Call of Cthulhu#Gustaf Johansen|Gustaf Johansen]], the narrator of one of the tales in the short story, describes the accidental discovery of the city: "a coast-line of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy [[Cyclopean masonry]] which can be nothing less than the tangible substance of earth's supreme terror—the nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh...loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours".<ref name="The Call of Cthulhu">H. P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928)</ref> The short story also asserts the premise that while currently trapped in R'lyeh, Cthulhu will eventually return, with worshipers often repeating the phrase ''Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn'': "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming".<ref name="The Call of Cthulhu"/>

Lovecraft claims R'lyeh is located at {{Coord|47|9|S|126|43|W|type:city_region:XP_scale:30000000|name=R'lyeh fictional location (Lovecraft)|display=it}} in the southern Pacific Ocean.<ref name="The Call of Cthulhu"/> Writer [[August Derleth]], a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, placed R'lyeh at about {{Coord|49|51|S|128|34|W|type:city_region:XP_scale:30000000|name=R'lyeh fictional location (Derleth)}}.<ref>Derleth, A. ''The Black Island'' (1952)</ref> The latter coordinates place the city approximately {{convert|5100|nmi|km}} from the actual island of [[Pohnpei]] (Ponape), the location of the fictional "[[Cthulhu Mythos arcane literature#Ponape Scripture|Ponape Scripture]]". Both locations are close to the Pacific [[Pole of inaccessibility#Oceanic pole of inaccessibility|pole of inaccessibility]] ({{Coord|48|52.6|S|123|23.6|W|type:waterbody_region:XP_scale:30000000|name=Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility}}), the point in the ocean farthest from any land mass.

== Significance and criticism ==
R'lyeh is characterized by bizarre architecture likened to [[non-Euclidean geometry]] that hampers exploration and escape. At one point, a crew member "climbed interminably along the grotesque stone moulding{{snd}}that is, one would call it climbing if the thing was not after all horizontal{{snd}}and the men wondered how any door in the universe could be so vast"<ref name="The Call of Cthulhu" /> and at another, a sailor "was swallowed up by an angle of masonry which shouldn't have been there; an angle which was acute, but behaved as if it were obtuse".<ref name="The Call of Cthulhu" /> Mathematician Benjamin K.Tippett demonstrates that these observations are consistent with "exploring a bubble of [[curved spacetime]]".<ref>{{cite arXiv|last=Tippett|first=Benjamin K|date=2012|title= Possible Bubbles of Spacetime Curvature in the South Pacific|class=physics.pop-ph|eprint=1210.8144}}</ref> Non-Euclidean geometry and [[Albert Einstein|Einstein's theories]] feature in several of Lovecraft's stories as [[Weird fiction|Weird]] elements. Critics Paul Halpern and Michael C. Labossiere note that <blockquote>Rather than having science expand its boundaries to include genuine supernatural phenomena through brand new theories, the alleged supernatural phenomena are instead accounted for in scientific terms through existing models of nature. Thus, science is not so much embracing the supernatural as reducing it to a manifestation of the natural. Lovecraft's fascinating approach to science and the supernatural is further illustrated by the fact that he reverses the usual technique for ghostly fright. Rather than breaking the laws of science with supernatural means and thus generating fear, he creates a feeling of horror by showing that the common sense views of physics and nature (that is, the old Newtonian views) are the comforting fantasy. In contrast, the counterintuitive "new physics", the true scientific reality, provides the source of horror.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Halpern|first1=Paul|last2=LaBossiere|first2=Michael|date=2009|title=Mind Out of Time: Identity, Perception, and the Fourth Dimension in H. P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time" and "The Dreams in the Witch House"|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3828/extr.2009.50.3.8|journal=Extrapolation|volume=50|issue=3|pages=512–533|doi=10.3828/extr.2009.50.3.8|issn=0014-5483|url-access=subscription}}</ref></blockquote>

==Other interpretations==
{{unreferenced section|date=June 2024}}
In [[Alan Moore]]'s Lovecraft-derived comic book mini-series ''[[Neonomicon]]'' and ''[[Providence (Avatar Press)|Providence]]'' it is implied, in a fashion suiting a non-Euclidean entity such as Cthulhu, that R'lyeh and subsequently Cthulhu himself do not yet exist in a physical sense. R'lyeh and Cthulhu's "dead dreaming" are instead a metaphor for the [[Fetus#Development in humans|fetal development]] of Cthulhu in the womb of a female human detective-turned-cultist, impregnated by a male [[Deep One]] while held prisoner by his followers. Similarly to the [[Antichrist]], it is stated that Cthulhu's inevitable "return" to destroy civilization and liberate mankind from rule of law will begin with his physical birth.

==Notes==
{{Reflist|50em}}

==References==
{{Refbegin|50em}}
* {{cite book |last=Derleth |first=August |chapter=The Black Island |orig-year=1952 |title=Quest for Cthulhu |year=2000 |location=New York |publisher=Carroll & Graf |isbn=0-7867-0752-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Harms |first=Daniel |chapter=R'lyeh |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediacthu00dani/page/255 255] |title=The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana |edition=2nd |year=1998 |location=Oakland, CA |publisher=Chaosium |isbn=1-56882-119-0 |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediacthu00dani/page/255 }}
* {{cite book |first=Howard P. |last=Lovecraft |chapter=The Call of Cthulhu |orig-year=1928 |title=The Dunwich Horror and Others |editor=S. T. Joshi |year=1984 |edition=9th corrected printing |publisher=Arkham House |location=Sauk City, WI |isbn=0-87054-037-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/dunwichhorroroth0000love }} Definitive version.
* {{cite book |last=Pearsall |first=Anthony B. |title=The Lovecraft Lexicon |edition=1st |year=2005 |location=Tempe, AZ |publisher=New Falcon |isbn=1-56184-129-3}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Schweitzer |editor-first=Darrell|title=Discovering H. P. Lovecraft |publisher=[[Wildside Press]] |location=Holicong, PA |year=2001 |isbn=1-58715-470-6}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
* [https://www.tor.com/2021/12/24/i-cthulhu-or-whats-a-tentacle-faced-thing-like-me-doing-in-a-sunken-city-like-this-latitude-47-9%e2%80%b2-s-longitude-126-43%e2%80%b2-w/ "I, Cthulhu, or, What’s A Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing In A Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47° 9′ S, Longitude 126° 43′ W)?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211226113542/https://www.tor.com/2021/12/24/i-cthulhu-or-whats-a-tentacle-faced-thing-like-me-doing-in-a-sunken-city-like-this-latitude-47-9%E2%80%B2-s-longitude-126-43%E2%80%B2-w/ |date=2021-12-26 }}, [[Neil Gaiman]] (1986)
* [http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm ''A Colder War''], [[Charles Stross]] (2000)

{{H. P. Lovecraft|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Cthulhu Mythos locations]]
[[Category:Fictional islands]]
[[Category:Fictional populated places]]
[[Category:Fictional prisons]]
[[Category:Fictional elements introduced in 1928]]