The young pantheon had remanded their elders to the role of smouldering, chthonic gods; to inhabiting dark, deep places, hidden from mortal eyes and influence.

In this ceremony the Olympian Gods are placed in opposition to the Chthonic genii, the divinities of death and the dark side of nature, in which class the heroes are also reckoned; but Zeus Soter is conceived as a third and lord over both worlds.

In connexion with these Chthonic surroundings, the form of the head-dress which crowns the recumbent figure of Dionysos-Pluto, and is also occasionally seen on the kead of the Kourotrophos at the foot of the couch, is of considerable significance.

There is no god more chthonic than the god of death, Leinth, and it is he that holds on his left knee Maris Halna, who (in mere innocence) shows no fear of him.

The snake symbolizes the chthonic force, the being which crawls along the ground; the bird symbolizes the higher realms of the consciousness, the being which is liberated from earth and can fly off to Heaven.

[H. Patrick] Glenn refers to Indigenous law as chthonic law, because it is the law of chthonic peoples – peoples 'who live ecological lives by being chthonic, that is, by living in or in close harmony with the earth'.

A most striking thing about Hainin’s fauna is how chthonic it is.

Chthonic

Meaning

Adj

Origin

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