A State of play: Olympians vs. Chthonians

When I first looked at the two columns on my page labelled Olympians and Chthonian's the decisions seemed relatively simple. However, when the columns went up for discussion and ideas of exclusivity were challenged the picture is less clear than one may at first perceive.The main idea that seems to come across from a binary outlook of Olympians and chthonian it came across that Olympians come out as superior, including some of the characteristics and values that Greeks instil in their mythologies such as masculinity, advancement and rationale  The image presented is a demonstration of a renaissance work which looks at the status of Olympians and chthonian deities using Manichean symbolism of light and darkness to demonstrate the difference between the two categories. It seems from this work that the divide is simple with the Olympians resting atop the cloud and chthonian deities along the bottom of the portraiture. However,where this portrait suggests that the differentiation of the gods can be looked at through binary methodology, Parker suggests differently in his assessment of the Greek cult "what is at issue is the whole shape of the divine world as seen by the Greeks."(Parker: pg.32) What issue Parker tries to dissect here and becomes clearer throughout his book on Greek cults, is the overlapping nature of Greek religion.
When we looked at characteristics for an Olympian and a Chthonian deity it became obvious that some can carry both . For example Hermes is a god who is considered an Olympian for his music but he is also a pseudo pompos (conveyer of souls to the underworld). The messiness that Parker tries to allude to is the characteristics that scholars try to attribute to gods and it is difficult following the mythology of gods to differentiate between what characteristics make a god a chthonian or an Olympian?
Often it is considered that are 12 Olympians and the rest of the deities are given different functions and labelled as being made to look like chtonians. However, if we try to make this decision based on the order of the pantheon the decision harder as the order of the pantheon is just as unclear as the differentiation between chthonian and Olympian. As has been examined when looking at the sovereignty of Zeus . Nevertheless, is it possible to see gods as only chthonian or Olympian? The only example that is possible to see of a completely Olympic deity is Apollo who is the God of the Sun and therefore could not be linked with death or night. Whilst it is possible to say that Apollo does present a case of a sole Olympic deity, Scullion suggests that even though "the existence of difficult and mixed cases does not mean that one should toss away the categories" (Scullion: pg.35)  However, this thought is not carried by other scholars like Parker who suggest that the characteristics that make up the divides of an Olympian and a chtonian need to be readjusted, "chtonian sacrifice as a single type has vanished" (Parker: pg.84)

Parker, R (2011) 'On Greek Religion' Cornell Studies in Classical Philosophy pg.32
Parker, R (2011) 'On Greek Religion' Cornell Studies in Classical Philosophy pg.84
Scullion, S (2006) ‘Bones, Behaviour, and Belief: The Osteological Evidence as a Source for Greek Ritual Practice’  Oxford University Press pg.35