τέλος δεδωκώς Xθύλου, σoι χάριν φέρω –> having given the end of Cthulhu, I confer a favor on you

[Chris_Reynolds]

I need help with this translation. This ancient greek tag was written on the inside of a book of horror stories I recently bought and is supposed to be written in the margins of the Necronomicon.

The only word I am pretty certain of is that "Χθύλου" translates to English as "Cthulhu" (for those who've never heard of him, Cthulhu is a big squid monster who's going to destroy the world).

[wings]

Hi there.

There is a spelling error in your first Greek word, i.e. the accentuation mark should be on the second syllable.

Thus, here come the individual words:

"Τεός" [archaic word] = yours
"δεδοκώς" = given, dedicated
"σοι" [dative of the second person personal pronoun] = to you, for you, at you
"χάριν" [accusative]  = grace, gratitude
"φέρω" = bring, carry, bear, offer

The final translation should look like "Cthulhu, being one of your dedicated creatures, I offer  my gratitude for you".

All the best for the weekend,

Vicky

[Chris_Reynolds]

Thanks very much Vicky.

[Jeffcraft1]

I saw this at the beginning of a cycle of book by authors who write for the Cthulhu mythos

τέλος δεδωκώς χθυλου, σoι χάριυ φέρω


χθυλου = Cthulhu which is a name.

The whole phrase is an inscription of the fictionalized necronomicon translated into Greek by theodorus philetas

Of course this was added to the book to add suspense but I'm wondering what it means please help I can't find a good translation of it. Thanks

[billberg23]

Xάριυ is of course a misprint for χάριν.  The sentence seems to mean, "Having given the end of Cthulhu, I confer a favor on you."
As you probably know, neither the Necronomicon nor "Theodorus Philetas" ever existed;  they were the product of H. P. Lovecraft's fevered imagination.

[Jeffcraft1]

Thank you for the translation, now that we have the english version, what in your opinion do you think it means?

[billberg23]

Νοt having read any of the Cthulhu stuff, I haven't the foggiest.  Could the "favor" refer to the book itself, which makes an end of Cthulhu?  Could "favor" then mean the pleasure of reading about Cthulhu's end?

[Jeffcraft1]

i had a friemd of mine translate it a while ago and what he came up with was "(your) joy has ended, now gracefully bear the burden of cthulhu"" im not sure if i remeber it correctly but what he got was something like that. he was using a lexicon so if he couldent find the exact form of the word he would find the root

[billberg23]

Your friend's translation couldn't be farther from what the Greek actually says.  What we gave you was an accurate translation;  it's up to you to interpret it, based on your reading of the book.

[spiros]

Merged.