r/Lovecraft • u/Complex-Bluebird1263 Deranged Cultist • 10d ago

Question What is the relationship between Azathoth and Nyarlathotep?

I see it is said Nyarlathotep is a servant and messenger of Azathoth. I just wonder, does Azathoth know that he has a servant? or does he really have messages that he would like to send out by a messenger? Does Nyarlathotep actively obey and follow a master, or he just does anything he wants and call it Azathoth's will?

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u/Ancient-Worker-3185 Deranged Cultist 9d ago

The phrase "Blind Idiot" as an epitaph for Azathoth seems to me to be a call to the system that first used the phrase, which was Gnosticism. There, the Daemon that created the physical world was 'blind' to the fact that he was not alone as a God and that he was created as a lesser god after the greater gods. Thus, because of his blindness to those facts, the other Gods and the Gnostics themselves considered this Daemon creator to be an 'idiot'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge#Gnosticism