chthonic's Usage Examples:

In the gloomy rites of of the Diasia, the Olympian Zeus, as Zeus Meilichios god of wealth, has been imposed upon a chthonic snake-deity who is propitiated by holocausts of pigs and by a ritual of purgation (Harrison, Prol.

2 Here one will note the prevalence of the ideas of " mother earth," and also the association in higher religions of chthonic powers with the serpent, so, e.

The goddess sometimes appears with doves, as uranic, at others with snakes, as chthonic.

chthonic powers may appear to the novices in grotesque, monstrous or beautiful forms.

A rationalistic explanation might be found in the connexion between the chthonic serpent and subterranean sources of wealth.

'2 As a chthonic animal the serpent has often been regarded as an embodiment of the soul of the dead.

, and Dis and Proserpina, with their strange chthonic associations and night ritual, probably from Tarentum in 249 B.

The Minoan goddess is sometimes seen in her chthonic form with serpents, sometimes in a more celestial aspect with doves, at times with lions.

Apart from the more obvious characteristics of the serpent likely to impress all observant minds (§ 1), its essentially chthonic character shows itself markedly when it is associated with the treasures and healing herbs of the earth, the produce of the soil, the source of springs - and thence of all water - and the dust unto which all men return.

Synonyms:

nether, chthonian, infernal,

Antonyms:

supernal, high, top, side,