Today, in an article comparing the act of literary creation to playing a game of chess:
Let us say that we wish to put Jules Verne's pre-Freudian chthonic womb-fantasy Voyage au Centre de la Terre against Jane Austen's paradigmatic quasi-romance Sense and Sensibility. — "Reading to the Endgame" by D. Graham Burnettt & W. J. Walter (Cabinet, Fall 2009)
Chthonic comes from the Greek khthonios, which means "in, under, or beneath the earth," and designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld. But wait—there's more:
While terms such as "Earth deity" have rather sweeping implications in English, the words khthonie and khthonios had a more precise and technical meaning in Greek, referring primarily to the manner of offering sacrifices to the deity in question. (Wikipedia)
So there were Chthonic cults. And they worshipped Persephone. Just the other day Ryan and I were eating pomegranates, which always remind me of Persephone, thanks to my high school Latin teacher. 'Spose I should have taken his Greek course, too.