I think that these things were supposed to depict men-at least, a certain sort of men though the creatures were shewn disporting like fishes in the waters of some marine grotto, or paying homage at some monolithic shrine which appeared to be under the waves as well. They were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design-living and horrible.Ī very similar description is provided in the much-earlier story Dagon: Their croaking, baying voices, clearly used for articulate speech, held all the dark shades of expression which their staring faces lacked. I was somehow glad that they had no more than four limbs. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. I think their predominant color was a greyish-green, though they had white bellies. A description is offered by the narrator of The Shadow Over Innsmouth: The Deep Ones are an ancient species of amphibious sea-dwelling humanoids, whose preferred habitat is the deep ocean. After their debut in Lovecraft's tale, the sea-dwelling creatures resurfaced in the works of other authors, especially August Derleth. Numerous Mythos elements are associated with the Deep Ones, including the legendary town of Innsmouth, the undersea city of Y'ha-nthlei, the Esoteric Order of Dagon, and the beings known as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. The females would regularly mate with voluntary human males along the coast, creating societies of hybrids. The Deep Ones are a race of intelligent ocean-dwelling creatures, approximately human-shaped but with a fishy appearance. The beings first appeared in Lovecraft's novella The Shadow over Innsmouth ( 1931), but were already hinted at in the early short story ' Dagon'. The Deep Ones are creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. Fan illustration of a Deep One from Lovecraft's story 'Dagon'

The shadow over innsmouth illustration