previous next

[457] Ζεὺς καταχθόνιος is a unique title in H., but we have “Ζεὺς χθόνιος” in Hesiod Opp. 465, where he is coupled with Demeter, and Soph. O. C. 1606; and there was a cult of him in Corinth (Paus.ii. 2. 8) and Mykonos. Compare the phrases “Ζεὺς ἄλλος” and “τὸν πολυξενώτατον Ζῆνα τῶν κεκμηκότων”, quoted from Aischylos. “Ζεὺς χθόνιος” is a favourite name in the Orphic poems and Nonnos. The name seems to imply a different set of myths from that general in H. — a theogony in which one Zeus is the god of heaven, earth, and underworld alike, and is worshipped in all these different aspects (cf. Paus. loc. cit.), instead of being differentiated into three gods. ἐπαινή occurs only as an epithet of Persephone, and only in this book and “κ” and “λ” in Hom. Od. (also Hes. Theog. 768Hes. Theog., 774). It is apparently = “αἰνή”, terrible, though some explained it “ἧι αἶνος ἔπεστι”, bepraised, a hypocoristic epithet like “ἀγαυή” and “ἁγνή” of the same goddess.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (5 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (5):
    • Hesiod, Theogony, 768
    • Hesiod, Theogony, 774
    • Hesiod, Works and Days, 465
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.2.8
    • Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus, 1606
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: