Chthonic beings

Hades (; , , later ), in the ancient Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the dead and riches and the King of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also made him the last son to be regurgitated by his father. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated, overthrew, and replaced their father's generation of gods, the Titans, and claimed joint sovereignty over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth, which was long the domain of Gaia, available to all

In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards, fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Greeks (a name later adopted by the Romans) for a frenzy he is said to induce called baccheia. His wine, music, and ecstatic dance were considered to free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. His thyrsus, a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wan

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter (; Attic: Dēmḗtēr ; Doric: Dāmā́tēr) is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although Demeter is mostly known as a grain goddess, she also appeared as a goddess of health, birth, and marriage, and had connections to the Underworld. She is also called Deo ( Dēṓ).

Osiris (, from Egyptian wsjr) was the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was classically depicted with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive atef crown and holding a symbolic crook and flail. He was one of the first to be associated with the mummy wrap. When his brother Set cut him to pieces after killing him, with her sister Nephthys, Osiris's sister-wife, Isis, searched Egypt to find each part of Osiris. She collected all but one – Osiris's genitalia. She then wrap

In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ; , classical pronunciation: ), also called Kore () or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after her abduction by her uncle Hades, the king of the underworld, who later took her into marriage. The myth of her abduction, her sojourn in the underworld, and her cyclical return to the surface represents her functions as the embodiment of spring and the personification of vegetation, especially grain crops, which disappear into the earth when sown, remain hidden for a period, sprout from the earth, a

god in Roman religion, Plouton in Greek

Hecate ( ; ) is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, or snakes, or accompanied by dogs, and in later periods depicted as three-formed or triple-bodied. She is variously associated with crossroads, night, light, magic, witchcraft, and the Moon. Her earliest appearance in literature was in Hesiod's Theogony in the 8th century BCE as a goddess of great honour with domains in sky, earth, and sea. She had popular followings among the witches of Thessaly, and an important sanctuary among the Carians of Asia Minor in Lagina. The earlies

Greek mythical siblings

thumb|right|Attic red-figure [[lekythos attributed to the Tymbos painter showing Charon welcoming a soul into his boat, c. 500–450 BC]]

In Greek mythology, Styx (; ; lit. "Shuddering"), also called the River Styx, is a goddess and one of the rivers of the Greek Underworld. Her parents were the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and she was the wife of the Titan Pallas and the mother of Zelus, Nike, Kratos, and Bia. She sided with Zeus in his war against the Titans, and because of this, to honor her, Zeus decreed that the solemn oaths of the gods be sworn by the water of Styx.

Atum (, Egyptian: jtm(w) or tm(w), reconstructed ; Coptic Atoum), sometimes rendered as Atem, Temu, or Tem, is the primordial God in Egyptian mythology from whom all else arose. He created himself and is the father of Shu and Tefnut, the divine couple, who are the ancestors of the other Egyptian deities. Atum is also closely associated with the evening sun. As a primordial god and as the evening sun, Atum has chthonic and underworld connections. Atum was relevant to the ancient Egyptians throughout most of Egypt's history. He is believed to have been present in ideology as early as predynastic

thumb|upright=1.2|Clytemnestra tries to awaken the sleeping Erinyes. Detail from an [[Apulian red-figure bell-krater, 380–370 BC.]]

In Greek mythology, Thanatos (; , Thánatos, pronounced in "Death", from θνῄσκω thnēskō "(I) die, am dying") was the personification of death. He was a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referred to but rarely appearing in person.

goddess of the underworld in Norse mythology

In various Asian religious traditions, the Nāgas () are a divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form, or are so depicted in art. Furthermore, nāgas are also known as dragons and water spirits. A female nāga is called a Nagini (Hindi: Nagin). According to legend, they are the children of the sage Kashyapa and Kadru. Rituals devoted to these supernatural beings have been taking place throughout South Asia for at least 2,000 years. They are principally depicted in three forms: as entir

In Greek mythology, Hypnos (; Ancient Greek: , 'sleep'), also spelled Hypnus, is the personification of sleep. The Roman equivalent is Somnus. His name is the origin of the word hypnosis. Pausanias wrote that Hypnos was the dearest friend of the Muses.

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earth-dragon of Delphi

deities or spirits of the underworld in Greek mythology

Triptolemus (), also known as Buzyges (), was a hero of Eleusis in Greek mythology, central to the Eleusinian Mysteries and is worshipped as the inventor and patron of agriculture. Triptolemus is credited with being the first to sow seed for cultivation after being taught by Demeter and is credited for the use of oxen and the plough. Xenophon claims that Peloponnesus was the first place Triptolemus shared Demeter's agricultural gift while Pausanias claims the Rharium plane near Eleusis was the first place to be sown for crops.

thumb|The ifrit Arghan's eyes are slightly crossed and his orange skin spotted all over; he carries a chest over the waters on behalf of Hamza, from an illustration in the Hamzanama

Tatenen (also Ta-tenen, Tatjenen, Tathenen, Tanen, Tenen, Tanenu, and Tanuu) was the deity of the primordial mound in ancient Egyptian religion. His name means "risen land" or "exalted earth", as well as referring to the silt of the Nile. As a primeval chthonic deity, Tatenen was identified with creation. Both feminine and masculine, he was an androgynous protector of nature from the Memphis area (then known as Men-nefer), the ancient capital of the Inebu-hedj nome in Lower Egypt.

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Zagreus () was a god sometimes identified with an Orphic Dionysus who was dismembered by the Titans and reborn. In the earliest mention of Zagreus, he is paired with Gaia and called the "highest" god, though perhaps only in reference to the gods of the underworld. Aeschylus, however, links Zagreus with Hades, possibly as Hades' son, or as Hades himself. Noting "Hades' identity as Zeus' katachthonios alter ego", Timothy Gantz postulated that Zagreus, originally the son of Hades and Persephone, later merged with the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Pe

thumb|right|Agamemnon, [[Talthybius and Epeius, relief from Samothrace, ca. 560 BC, Louvre]] In Greek mythology, the Cabeiri or Cabiri (), also transliterated Kabeiri or Kabiri, were a group of enigmatic chthonic deities. They were worshipped in a mystery cult closely associated with that of Hephaestus, centered in the north Aegean Islands of Lemnos and possibly Samothrace—at the Samothrace temple complex—and at Thebes. In their distant origins the Cabeiri and the Samothracian gods may include pre-Greek elements, or other non-Greek elements, such as Thracian, Tyrrhenian, Pelasgian, Phrygian or

In ancient Roman religion, the Manes (, , ) or Di Manes are chthonic deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with the Lares, Lemures, Genii, and Di Penates as deities (di) that pertained to domestic, local, and personal cult. They belonged broadly to the category of di inferi, "those who dwell below", the undifferentiated collective of divine dead. The Manes were honored during the Parentalia and Feralia in February.

Trophonius (; Ancient Greek: Τροφώνιος Trophōnios) was a Greek hero or daimon or god—it was never certain which one—with a rich mythological tradition and an oracular cult at Lebadea () in Boeotia, Greece.

thumb|Iacchus (?), with a torch in each hand, on the Ninnion Tablet, 350s BC, [[National Archaeological Museum of Athens 11036.]]

In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, Minthe or Mintha () is an underworld naiad associated with the river Cocytus. She was beloved by and mistress to Hades, the king of the underworld, but she was transformed into a mint plant by either his wife Persephone or her mother Demeter. The plant was also called by some as hedyosmos (), which means "sweet-smelling".

In Sumerian religion, Gugalanna ( [GU4.GAL.AN.NA] or [DGU2.GAL.AN.NA]) is the first husband of Ereshkigal, the queen of the underworld. His name probably originally meant "canal inspector of An" and he may be merely an alternative name for Ennugi. The son of Ereshkigal and Gugalanna is Ninazu. In ''Inanna's Descent into the Underworld, Inanna, the goddess of love, beauty, sex, and war, tells the gatekeeper Neti that she is descending to the Underworld to attend the funeral of "Gugalanna, the husband of my elder sister Ereshkigal". Some scholars consider Gugalanna to be the same figure as the B

thumb|Bronze tablet (3rd century AD) from Pergamon invoking Melinoë along with Persephone and Leucophryne; the three goddesses pictured are labeled as Dione, Phoebe, and Nyche

Achlys ( "mist"), in the Hesiodic Shield of Heracles, is one of the figures depicted on Heracles' shield, perhaps representing the personification of sorrow. In Homer, achlys is the mist which fogs or blinds mortal eyes (often in death). Her Roman counterpart Caligo was said to have been the mother of Chaos. In Nonnus's Dionysiaca, she seems to be a witch.

Greek nymph

In Greek mythology, Melisseus (; , or ), was the father of the nymphs Adrasteia, Ida, Melissa, and Althaea who were nurses of the infant Zeus on Crete. His parentage differs from telling to telling, ranging from Gaia and Uranus, to Carystus the eponym of Karystos, and Socus and Combe.

A Tudigong () is a kind of Chinese tutelary deity of a specific location. There are several Tudigongs corresponding to different geographical locations and sometimes multiple ones will be venerated together in certain regions.

thumbnail|right|Tuchulcha and These in the Tomb of Orcus II, [[Tarquinia.]] In Etruscan mythology, Tuchulcha was a chthonic daemon (not to be confused with the Christian term "demon") with pointed ears (perhaps those of a donkey), hair made of snakes, and a beak (perhaps that of a vulture). Tuchulcha lived in the underworld known as Aita.

In Roman mythology, Mefitis (or Mephitis; Mefite in Italian) was a goddess of Italic origins primarily worshipped by the Samnites and Osci in southern Italy. Mefitis was associated with water— particularly foul-smelling or sulfurous water— and noxious fumes. Her main temple was situated near Lake Ampsanctus, which was described as deadly by Cicero and Pliny. The temple itself was reported to contain poisonous gas that killed anyone who entered, and Virgil described it as an entrance to the underworld.

Norse mythical character

Śuri (), Latinized as '''''', was an ancient Etruscan infernal, volcanic and solar fire god, also venerated by other Italic peoples – among them Capenates, Faliscans, Latins and Sabines – and later adopted into ancient Roman religion.

thumb|right|Four beings commonly identified as landvættir, as described in the Heimskringla version of [[Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar, as supporters on the coat of arms of Iceland.]] Landvættir ("land spirits" or "land wights") are spirits of the land in Old Nordic religion, later folk belief and modern Heathenry. They are closely associated with specific locations and their wellbeing is presented as being required for the land they inhabit to be fruitful. In Old Norse sources, they are depicted as being potentially harmful and capable of driving away unwanted individuals and capable of being frigh

demon in Iranian and later Islamic beliefs

, also known as , , , or , are Shinto folk deities, or kami, of an area of land (the name literally means "land-master-kami").

Enmesharra ( , "Lord of all mes") was a Mesopotamian god associated with the underworld. He was regarded as a member of an old generation of deities, and as such was commonly described as a ghost or resident of the underworld. He is best known from various lists of primordial deities, such as the "theogony of Enlil," which lists many generations of ancestral deities.

In Greek mythology, the Arae (; ) were female spirits of curses, particularly of the curses placed by the dead upon those guilty of their death; they were associated with the underworld. They can also curse men such that the cattle of the sun god Helios would have done if they were harmed by any man, as in Homer's Odyssey.

In Greek mythology, Orphne ( ; , from ) was a nymph that lived in Hades. She was also known as Styx ( ; ) or Gorgyra ( ; , from ). With Acheron, she mothered Ascalaphus.

In Roman mythology, Fames is the personification of hunger, who can arouse an insatiable appetite. She was often said to be one of the several evils who inhabit the entrance to the Underworld. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, she lives in Scythia, a desolate place where she scrabbles unceasingly for the scant vegetation there, and at Ceres' command, she punishes Erysichthon with a never-ending hunger. Servius calls Fames the greatest of the Furies. She is the equivalent of the Greek Limos.

In Ancient Greek religion and mythology, Enodia, also spelled Ennodia and Einodia (; ) is a distinctly Thessalian goddess, identified in certain areas or by certain ancient writers with Artemis, Hecate or Persephone. She was paired with Zeus in cult and sometimes shared sanctuaries with him. Enodia was primarily worshipped in Ancient Thessaly and was well known in Hellenistic Macedonia.

thumb|Ancient Greek coin with Athena Itonia on the reverse. Itonia, Itonias or Itonis (Gr. ', or ') was an epithet of the Greek goddess Athena worshiped widely in Thessaly and elsewhere. The name was derived from the town of Iton in the south of Phthiotis.