Simon Necronomicon - Good Versus Evil

Good Versus Evil

A main theme of the book is the struggle between good and evil. The principal forces of good are the "Elder Gods"; of evil, the "Ancient Ones". These two groups are populated with authentic Mesopotamian gods and monsters as well as fictitious ones. The Ancient Ones are older and represent primeval chaos. Chief among them is Tiamat. The Elder Gods are younger entities, children of the Ancient Ones, who rebelled against them and prevailed.

Included in the Simon Necronomicon is a story that is a variant of the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation epic. It relates how Marduk (Leader of the Elder Gods) slew Tiamat (Queen of the Ancient Ones), clove her body in two and created the Heaven and the Earth from the two halves. The Elder Gods also created mankind from the blood of Kingu (an Ancient One). Other Ancient Ones are imprisoned beneath the Earth or beyond the Heavens. With the exception of the terms "Elder Gods" and "Ancient Ones" (which were first popularized by the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft), many of these stories are derived from authentic myths.

Simon's introduction claims that Lovecraft's mythos tells of the struggle between good and evil, as personified by the good Elder Gods and the evil "Great Old Ones". Lovecraft's work did not feature such a conflict, however; the theme of "cosmic war" derives instead from the apocryphal Book of Enoch, cited by Lovecraft in his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature", and later contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos by author August Derleth.

According to Simon, the Ancient Ones now lie "not dead but dreaming", awaiting a day when they may return to life. To do this, they are dependent upon the positions of the stars as well as the sacrifices of their mortal followers. These ideas largely run parallel to elements of the Cthulhu Mythos, so much so that critics claim that this is an obvious attempt to reconcile the Simon Necronomicon with Lovecraft's well-known stories such as "The Call of Cthulhu". The Armageddon and Apocalypse of Judeo-Christianity are also referenced: following the conflagration of the End Times, the flesh of the vanquished Leviathan is to be served up to the victorious survivors.