χθών

From Proto-Hellenic *kʰtʰṓn (earlier Proto-Hellenic *tʰkʰṓn), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰōm, with regular transference to n-stem (cf. εἷς (heîs), χῐών (khĭṓn)) and metathesizing of the Proto-Indo-European cluster *dʰǵʰ-, since Greek stop clusters must always end in a dental. Cognates include Sanskrit क्ष (kṣa) and Latin humus.

χθών • (khthṓn) f (genitive χθονός); third declension

1. ground, soil, surface of the earth
   • 405 BCE, Euripides, The Bacchae 1.1:

     Ἥκω Δῐὸς παῖς τὴνδε Θηβαίᾱν χθόνᾰ Δῐόνῡσος,

     Hḗkō Dĭòs paîs tḕnde Thēbaíān khthónă Dĭónūsos,

     I, Dionysus, a child of Zeus, have come to this Theban ground,

2. earth, world
3. land, country

• “χθών”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “χθών”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “χθών”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• χθών in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• χθών in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “χθών”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • asia idem, page 44.
  • country idem, page 178.
  • domain idem, page 246.
  • earth idem, page 259.
  • gaea (earth regarded as a goddess) idem, page 351.
  • ground idem, page 375.
  • land idem, page 475.
  • soil idem, page 791.
  • sparta idem, page 798.
  • troy idem, page 898.
• χθών, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011