The Tale of Satampra Zeiros

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The Tale of Satampra Zeiros - Wikipedia

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"The Tale of Satampra Zeiros"
Short story by Clark Ashton Smith
Title page of "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" as it appeared in Weird Tales, November 1931. Illustration by Joseph Doolin.
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Fantasy
Publication
Published in	Weird Tales
Publication type	Pulp magazine
Publisher	Popular Fiction Publishing Co.
Media type	Print
Publication date	November 1931
Series	Hyperborean cycle

"The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" is a short story written in 1929 by American author Clark Ashton Smith as part of his Hyperborean cycle, and first published in the November 1931 issue of Weird Tales. It is the story in which Smith created the Cthulhu Mythos entity Tsathoggua.

Publication history

According to Emperor of Dreams: A Clark Ashton Smith Bibliography (1978) by Donald Sidney-Fryer, "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" was first published in the November 1931 issue of Weird Tales. It was included in the books Lost Worlds (1944), The Spawn of Cthulhu (1970), and Hyperborea (1971).^[1]

Plot

The story is narrated by the thief Satampra Zeiros, who says he is writing with his left hand because he has lost his right. Zeiros and his companion Tirouv Ompallios are thieves living in the city of Uzuldaroum. They are short on money, so Zeiros suggests they plunder Commorium, the abandoned former capital city of Hyperborea. In Commorium, they stumble upon an ancient temple of the elder god Tsathoggua. The building is perfectly preserved except for a damaged lintel. A vast bronze basin stands in the middle of the temple, and a stone idol is on the far side. To their disappointment, the idol has no inset jewels. The basin contains a stinking, viscous, sooty liquid. The liquid rises out of the basin and shapes itself into a monster with an enormous head, tentacles, and a dozen legs. The monster hunts the thieves all night. At dawn the thieves realize they have circled back to the temple. They enter and bolt the door, but the monster pours in through the holes in the lintel. Zeiros hides behind the statue of the god, while Ompallios clambers into the basin. The monster engulfs Ompallios and silently digests him. Zeiros creeps to the door, but the noise of the bolt draws the creature's attention. A tentacle springs out of the basin and catches Zeiros's right wrist. As he stumbles out of the temple, the tentacle severs his hand and carries it to the basin.

Inspiration

"Satampra Zeiros" is a story written in the style of Lord Dunsany, who wrote a similar tale of thievery gone wrong called "How Nuth Would Have Practiced His Art upon the Gnoles". Robert M. Price points to Dunsany's "Bethmoora", featuring another deserted city, as an additional likely inspiration.^[2]

Reaction

When Smith sent his friend H. P. Lovecraft a copy of the unpublished manuscript, he responded with "well-nigh delirious delight.... You have achieved in its fullest glamour the exact Dunsanian touch which I find it almost impossible to duplicate.... Altogether, I think this comes close to being your high point in prose fiction to date...."^[3]

References

^ Donald Sidney-Fryer (1978). Emperor of Dreams: A Clark Ashton Smith Bibliography. Hampton Falls, New Hampshire: Donald M. Grant, Publisher. p. 173. ISBN 0-937986-10-0.
^ Robert M. Price, The Tsathoggua Cycle, p. 56.
^ H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Clark Ashton Smith, December 3, 1929; cited in Price, p. 56.

External links

The Tale of Satampra Zeiros title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Text of "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros"

v t e Works of Clark Ashton Smith
Bibliography Deities
Short stories	"The Black Abbot of Puthuum" "The Charnel God" "The Dark Eidolon" "The Death of Ilalotha" "The Empire of the Necromancers" "The Isle of the Torturers" "The Last Hieroglyph" "A Night in Malnéant" "The Ninth Skeleton" "The Return of the Sorcerer" "Sadastor" "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" "The Testament of Athammaus" "The Voyage of King Euvoran" "The Weaver in the Vault" "The Witchcraft of Ulua" "Xeethra"
Collections	Out of Space and Time Lost Worlds Genius Loci and Other Tales The Dark Chateau Spells and Philtres The Abominations of Yondo Tales of Science and Sorcery Poems in Prose Other Dimensions Zothique Hyperborea Xiccarph Poseidonis Selected Poems The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith A Rendezvous in Averoigne The Emperor of Dreams Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith
Settings	Averoigne Hyperborea Zothique Poseidonis
Related	Cthulhu Mythos Cykranosh Philip Hastane Tsathoggua

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