Few things seem quite as alien as the octopus. Multi-armed, boneless and surprisingly intelligent, there's a good reason they frequently cameo in cosmic horror - but these cephalopods featured in myth and folklore long before Cthulhu oozed from Lovecraft's pen. Let's take a look at...
- Kanaloa of Hawai'i
- Pliny and Aelian on the Octopus
- Akkorokamui of Japan
- Na Kika of the Gilbert Islands
- Te Wheke-a-Muturangi of New Zealand
- The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus Hoax
- The Kraken of Scandinavia
 |
| It's easy to see why people thought them otherworldly... (Dear Sunflower) |
Kanaloa of Hawai'i
Kanaloa is the Hawai'ian akua of Moananuiākea, or god of the Pacific ocean (though it's also an old name for the island of Kahoʻolawe, and means solid, firm or established.) Like many figures from Hawai'ian mythology, Kanaloa was "kino lau" or many-bodied, with the he‘e (octopus or squid) being one of his preferred forms.
Despite being a god, Kanaloa is something of a dark figure in Hawaiian mythology. One legend claims that he was originally a spirit on Earth that led a rebellion against the gods after they forbid the spirits of Earth from drinking awa. The rebellion was unsuccessful, and Kanaloa was cast into the underworld.
Other legends paint Kanaloa in a better light. As well as dominion over the ocean and its inhabitants, Kanaloa was considered a healer that could help free a victim from the effects of sorcery. He was often associated with Kāne (a god of creation and fresh water) and both were invoked when blessing a new canoe - Kāne for the creation of the vessel, Kanaloa for sailing it. The two divinities were also said to travel together, drinking awa and creating new springs for the Hawai'ian people as they went!
Kanaloa appears in the Hawai'ian creation chant "Kumulipo" which suggests that our world was built up in stages, starting with primordial slime and sequentially adding other creatures. Some scholars interpret Hawai'ian mythology as claiming versions of the world existed before our own, and that the octopus is the lone survivor of the previous iteration. Continuing this theme, some researchers have suggested that the octopus is well positioned to become the apex species on Earth if humans should die out!
 |
| Sneaky... (jusch) |
The Roman scholar Pliny brings us some fascinating tales of octopuses (that he calls polypus) including one particularly adventurous example. Just as a side note, "polypus" was something of a catch-all term used for anything "many footed" which can lead to misidentifications - for example, this 1539 depiction of an "octopus" clearly shows a giant lobster snatching an unfortunate sailor in one massive pincer!
Pliny's Natural History Vol. IX relates the exploits of the octopus as told by Trebius Niger, claiming that they wedge rocks into the shells of bivalves to stop them closing on (or outright severing) their arms. This isn't likely to be true - the larger clams that might be strong enough to fight an octopus tend to be slow closers. There's also the fact that octopuses feed on shellfish by simply wrenching them open with their arms (having eight with suckers is pretty handy) or, if the shellfish proves too tough, drilling through their shell with their beak, rasping tongue-like "radula" and shell-weakening spit. Sometimes they'll drill a small hole through the shell and inject their prey with toxins to paralyze it and prevent the bivalve from holding its shell shut.
Far from being content with shellfish, the octopus is described as one of the most savage killers of divers and sailors, wrapping them in their arms and dragging them below - though apparently, they can be weakened if the sailor can flip the creature onto its back.
There's also the tale of an octopus that persistently raided Carteia when fish was being salted. The story goes that a massive octopus would crawl from the sea, bypass fences put in its way using a convenient tree and help itself to the fish. It was eventually cornered by guard dogs (which it was attempting to club with its arms) and dispatched by means of several harpoons - the human guards didn't want to get close, since those arms were described as being around 30ft long!
It seems that oversized octopuses have a taste for Iberian fish, as the fellow Roman Aelian wrote of a cephalopod raiding Dicaearchia by swimming up a sewer and sneaking into a storehouse where pickled fish were being kept. A servant set to watch the stores saw the creature emerge and break open earthenware jars of the fish like a wrestler applying a stranglehold - unsurprisingly, he elected not to try and fight the creature alone. Unfortunately for the octopus, merchants ambushed it when it next returned, hacking off its arms with sharpened blades and eventually killing it!
So are these stories true? Well, the stories of Roman scholars tend to be somewhat inaccurate, but octopuses are renowned explorers, problem solvers and escape artists. Some species even specialize in hopping from rockpool to rockpool, hunting for crabs!
 |
| Red sky and sea warned of Akkorokamui... (Isabel Galvez) |
Akkorokamui of Japan
The kraken may be the archetypical gigantic octopus, but Japan's Akkorokamui is a pretty convincing rival. Said to live in Hokkaido’s Uchiura Bay, Akkorokamui's arms can cover an area 100m across when extended. When it surfaces, the sea and sky reflect the hues of its crimson body - and locals do their best to avoid the water when light turns the bay red.Encountering the Akkorokamui is a dangerous proposition - though a divine being, the enormous octopus devours any ship that gets too close. Fishermen and sailors would bring scythes and polearms with them if forced to sail in red light, though fighting the creature seems like it would be utterly hopeless.
Interestingly, Akkorokamui wasn't always an octopus. Legend has it that a giant red spider called Yaushikep once lived in the nearby mountains... until it went on a destructive rampage through Rebunge village. The sea god Repun Kamuy heard the prayers of the terrified villagers and dragged Yaushikep into the bay... at which point it transformed into Akkorokamui!
Na Kika of the Gilbert Islands
The Gilbert Islands have their own divine octopus, Na Kika. This entity was brought forth by the spider-like creator deity Nareau and helped him create the world as we know it. The story goes that Na Kika once had ten arms, but Nareau removed two of them to feed Riiki (another divine creature in the form of an eel.) This made Riiki strong enough to lift the sky and keep it separate from the land!Oddly enough, an oil field and drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico bears the name of Na Kika. Apparently the rig even resembles an octopus, with the platform as the central body and pipes reaching to several oil subfields like a cephalopod's arms.
 |
| Keep in mind that a pet can grow... (Kostas Morfiris) |
Te Wheke-a-Muturangi of New ZealandMāori legend also contains an unusual octopus, Te Wheke-o-Muturangi. The story goes that a tohunga or priest named Muturangi was exiled from his community on Hawaiki, banished to the lonely side of the island. Muturangi subsequently found and tamed a wheke or octopus (Te Wheke-o-Muturangi basically means the octopus of Muturangi)which he would send out to catch fish in the sea... and eventually, he set his pet to steal fish from the community that exiled him.
The wheke wrecked nets and stole fish until the villagers turned to the folk hero Kupe for help. Not one to shy from danger, the warrior took his canoe to the fishing grounds to investigate - and that's where he encountered the now giant octopus.
Man and beast fought a protracted battle that pitched war-club against writhing arms, altering the terrain as they went. Their struggle gouged out the Marlborough Sounds and the wheke's thrashing kicked up the Te Pokohiwi boulder bank - when Kupe finally cut the great beast in half, the eyes formed a pair of islands called Ngāwhatu Kai-ponu ("the eyes that witnessed.")
The Kraken of ScandinaviaI mentioned that the kraken is probably the best-known octopus legend, but researchers are now suggesting that immense cephalopods roamed the prehistoric oceans. Let's deal with the legend first.
The kraken may be a creature of legend (possibly one inspired by sightings of giant squid) but in 2026 researchers announced the discovery of massive octopus jaw fossils dating back to the Cretaceous. Based on the jaw size it's thought that these creatures may have reached 19m in length, putting them in the same ballpark as the largest mosasaurs.
If you're wondering what happened to the rest of the vanquished octopus, a clue can be found at Te Umu Wheke... a bay whose name translates to "the octopus oven."
The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus Hoax
The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus is a fairly unique creature, but then, it doesn't really exist. The creature was displayed on a humorous hoax website created in 1998, where it was described as living in the temperate rainforests of America's Olympic Peninsula.
Supposedly it spawned in the streams and hunted in the trees, relying on the moist conditions to keep itself hydrated. Sadly, the imaginary creature was endangered by equally imagined threats - not only did trappers value it for use as a hat, they were the prey of a booming sasquatch population!
Something about the hoax is quite compelling though, and the creature has been used in several studies looking at people's ability to evaluate online media. One such study found that even undergraduate biologists could be tripped up by this fictional arboreal cephalopod and the creature can now be found in the Library of Congress!
 |
| "Round, flat and full of arms..." (Oleksandr Sushko) |
The Kraken of ScandinaviaI mentioned that the kraken is probably the best-known octopus legend, but researchers are now suggesting that immense cephalopods roamed the prehistoric oceans. Let's deal with the legend first.
The 12th century Konungs Skuggsjá contains a sea monster called a hafgufa (sea-mist.) This creature is often misidentified as an island and feeds by belching, spraying clumps of food into the water splashing around its open mouth. This cloud of organic matter draws in unwary fish, who are trapped when the creature elects to close its mouth. Similar creatures show up in the Örvar-Odds saga, but in both of these cases the creature sounds suspiciously like a large whale trap feeding. The kraken itself starts appearing in a 1646 Norwegian glossary by Christen Jensøn, derived from the word for a crooked tree.
The Danish bishop Erik Pontoppidan is usually credited with the first "official" description of the kraken as we know it - he calls it "round, flat, and full of arms, or branches" which is a pretty good caricature of a giant octopus. The beast is described as massive, often resembling a small set of islands with seaweed floating about them.- but if the arms are raised, they are as large as a ship's mast.
While the kraken was a dangerous creature (supposedly able to grasp even the biggest man of war ship and pull it beneath the waves) bold fishermen could benefit from its presence. The bulk of the kraken would drive fish close to the surface, leading to easy and excellent catches... but a wary sailor would keep an eye on the water's depth, since the water suddenly becoming shallower would warn of the kraken rising towards the surface and the need to get clear fast.
The kraken may be a creature of legend (possibly one inspired by sightings of giant squid) but in 2026 researchers announced the discovery of massive octopus jaw fossils dating back to the Cretaceous. Based on the jaw size it's thought that these creatures may have reached 19m in length, putting them in the same ballpark as the largest mosasaurs.
Thanks for reading - for more, try...