CHTHONIC DEITIES. — In Greek religion the epithet *chthonios* was applied to numerous deities who, in contrast to the Olympian gods who dwelt in the sky, lived within the earth and had connections with the realm of the dead. These were ancient deities, for some pre-Hellenic, often with local cults, later absorbed into other divinities. Mankind owed them good harvests and the successful raising of livestock. Some were thought to be malevolent, and sacrificial rites were said to aim at warding them off (Isocrates, V, 117), though this assertion is inaccurate.
The Greeks applied the epithet *chthonios* to: 1) Zeus: in the islands, and in Hesiod he is Hades, king of the underworld, yet for Hesiod too he blesses the fields and agriculture; at Mykonos he received a sacrifice together with Ge Chthonia to secure abundant harvests. 2) Dionysus, as god of plant and animal life. 3) Hermes, bringer of dreams, guide of souls to the underworld, honored in festivals of the dead and at tombs. 4) Ge (Earth), worshipped at Mykonos. 5) Demeter, invoked in curses: she had a cult at Sparta, where she received a sacrifice in funeral rites; in her honor, and in that of Pluto and Kore, the *Chthonia* festival was celebrated at Hermione at harvest time; a procession of priests, magistrates, and people, with children dressed in white and crowned with hyacinths, went to the temple; four heifers, led by four men, were sacrificed by four old women acting as priestesses; behind her temple a chasm led down to the Underworld. 6) Persephone, in her capacity as queen of the underworld. 7) Hecate, goddess of spirits and the dead: she wandered by night at the head of a ghostly host; to propitiate her food was offered at crossroads, she received sacrifices of dogs, and small shrines adorned with food and flowers stood at house doors at the end of each month; she was invoked together with Hermes Chthonios and other infernal deities in curses. 8) The Titans. 9) The Furies: to these deities must be added those whom the Greeks placed in the Underworld (see the list in Roscher, *Lexikon der Mythologie*, VI, cols. 76–78). In funerary inscriptions the phrase *chthonioi theoi* (ἐσχάριοι γόνοντα) appears to denote the deceased. Modern scholars consider numerous other deities to be chthonic even though the Greeks did not use this epithet for them.
In general, chthonic deities had their own rites. The worshipper knelt and touched the earth with his hand. In sacrifice, performed at a low altar (*eschara*), the blood of the victims had to penetrate the ground. The flesh was burned. Preferred victims were the ram and the pig, which had to be black-fleeced; at times human sacrifices were offered.
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