In ancient Greek religion and mythology, chthonic or chthonian deities or spirits were those who inhabited the underworld or existed in or under the earth, and were typically associated with death or fertility. The terms chthonic and chthonian are derived from the Ancient Greek word χθών meaning 'earth' or 'soil'. The Greek adjective χθόνιος means 'in, under, or beneath the earth', which can be differentiated from γῆ, which refers to the living surface of land on the earth. In Greek, χθόνιος is a descriptive word for things relating to the underworld, which was in antiquity sometimes applied as an epithet to deities such as Hermes, Demeter, and Zeus.