“ | What strange, splendid yet terrible experiences came to the poor mountaineer in the hours of sleep?—a story of a supernal being from Algol, the Demon-Star | „ | |
~ HPL , "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" |
Algol, the Daemon-Star is a double (and possibly quintary) star mentioned by H.P. Lovecraft as the sidereal home of a demonic shining entity made of light.
Behind the Mythos
The name Algol is derived from an Arabic phrase meaning "the demon's head" (Ra's al Ghul) and concordantly occupies a place in the constellation of Perseus often assigned to the head of Medusa.
Although believed to have been a binary star at the time of Lovecraft's writings, recent research suggests that it may in fact be a cluster system of as many as seven separate stars.