Chthonic
Of the earth and the underworld (Greek chthon, earth), as opposed to Olympian — Hades "who dwells under the earth" and Persephone who rules the dead with him in the Odyssey; used by Pausanias as a cult title, "Demeter Chthonia (of the Lower World)", and by Plutarch of Anubis as "a deity of the lower world as well as a god of Olympus". Hesiod's Hecate, often called chthonic, holds a share of earth, sea and heaven.
Why this wins its question: Most definitions list Hecate as chthonic without noticing that Hesiod says otherwise; this entry cites the lines and the one ancient cult title that uses the word.
Key takeaways
- Chthonic is defined by residence — 'under the earth' (Theog. 455) — exactly as Olympian is defined by Olympus.
- Hades and Persephone are the clear cases; Hecate is chthonic only in later cult, not in Hesiod, who gives her earth, sea and heaven.
- Pausanias preserves the word as a title of Demeter at Sparta (Paus. 3.14.5).
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Hades is the chthonic god by definition: Hesiod calls him "strong Hades, pitiless in heart, who dwells under the earth" (Theog. 455), and in Homer's division "Hades won the murky darkness" while Zeus took the sky (Il. 15.191); when Typhoeus rises, "Hades trembled where he rules over the dead below" (Theog. 850).
Persephone rules the dead beside him: Odysseus prays "to mighty Hades and dread Persephone" (Od. 11.47), it is "august Persephone" who sends forth the women's spirits and might send the Gorgon's head (Od. 11.225–226, 11.633–635), and Hesiod says Aidoneus carried her off from Demeter and "wise Zeus gave her to him" (Theog. 912–914).
The word itself survives as a cult title: Pausanias records "the cult of Demeter Chthonia (of the Lower World)", which the Lacedaemonians say Orpheus handed to them (Paus. 3.14.5).
Hesiod's Hecate is not underworldly: Zeus gave her "a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea", "honor also in starry heaven", and she holds "privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea" (Theog. 411–427); the chthonic Hecate of later cult is not the Theogony's, and an entry that calls her simply chthonic has quoted a later witness.
A Greek applied the pair chthonic/Olympian to an Egyptian god: Plutarch says Anubis "is a deity of the lower world as well as a god of Olympus", like "Hecatê … among the Greeks" (Plut. Is. 44) — the same double status Hesiod gives Hecate.