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The Mark of Athena
The Mark of Athena is an American fantasy-adventure novel written by Rick Riordan, based on Greek and Roman mythology. It was published on October 2, 2012, and is the third book in The Heroes of Olympus series, a sequel to the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. It is preceded by The Son of Neptune and followed by The House of Hades. The novel is narrated in the third-person.
The Mark of Athena received positive reviews from critics for its humor, characters, and mix of elements. Criticism was focused on its slow pace, action, and different perspectives. It has since been translated into many languages and released as a hardcover, e-book, audiobook, and paperback.
Six months after the events of The Lost Hero, Leo Valdez has constructed a flying trireme named Argo II, for use in the quest to Greece and Rome to stop Gaea from awakening. Leo Valdez, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Annabeth Chase, accompanied by Coach Hedge, arrive at Camp Jupiter to rendezvous with Percy Jackson and Roman demigods Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque. Camp Jupiter's praetor Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano tells Annabeth that in order to unite Greek and Roman demigods against Gaea, they have to retrieve the Athena Parthenos, a giant statue of Athena that was stolen by the Romans from the Greeks in ancient times. The statue can only be retrieved by the demigod children of Athena through the help of the Mark of Athena, and no one has succeeded. Their conversation is interrupted by an Eidolon, who possesses Leo and forces him to attack the Roman camp. This causes the paranoid augur, Octavian, to convince the Romans that the Greeks are a threat and have to be destroyed.
The seven demigods escape Camp Jupiter and briefly land near the Great Salt Lake. While there, Leo meets Nemesis, who gives him a fortune cookie that will help him if he breaks it, though doing so has consequences. Then, the group heads to Kansas, where Percy, Jason, and Piper disembark to find Bacchus, who tells them that they should find Phorcys. Gaea sends Eidolons to possess Percy and Jason in Kansas but they are repelled by Piper's charmspeak. When the demigods meet Phorcys and his sister, Keto, at the Georgia Aquarium, they turn out to be hostile, and the demigods are forced to battle them. Throughout the journey, tensions rise between Hazel, Frank, and Leo, especially when Leo discovers that Hazel's previous boyfriend was Leo's identical-looking great-grandfather Sammy Valdez. The group also learn that Nico di Angelo, who has been captured by the Giants during his travel to find the Doors of Death, is dying and must be saved. While searching for the Mark of Athena at Fort Sumter in Charleston, the demigods are ambushed by the Romans, but Reyna decides to let Annabeth continue her search for the Athena Parthenos, telling her that their next encounter will not be friendly. Annabeth finds a map about the mark of Athena, and returns to the ship.
While crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the Argo II is attacked by the Scolopendra, one of Keto's children, and Leo, Frank, and Hazel are briefly sent underwater to Chiron's brother, the Ichthyocentaurs. While traveling to Rome, they dodge Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar and sail through the Mediterranean Sea, confronting Chrysaor along the way. There, the group splits up: Hedge guards the ship; Percy, Jason, and Piper scout the Colosseum; Frank, Hazel, and Leo search for Nico; and Annabeth looks for the Athena Parthenos. Percy and Jason defeat Ephialtes and Otis, the twin Giants who captured Nico, with the help of Bacchus. Frank, Hazel, and Leo are trapped by the Eidolons underground, but Leo uses his fortune cookie to bail them out. Annabeth, meanwhile, faces a variety of challenges, eventually confronting Arachne and defeats her using trickery, pushing her into Tartarus. The demigods secure the Athena Parthenos and save Nico; however, Arachne uses her remaining silk and pulls Annabeth and Percy into Tartarus; Percy hanging on the edge, asks Nico to meet them at the other side of the Doors of Death and falls into the abyss. Leo realizes that Percy and Annabeth's fall are the "consequences" mentioned by Nemesis and feels personally responsible. All the remaining members set sail for Greece.
In Rick Riordan’s works, the author utilizes ancient mythology to form the basis of his worlds. In The Mark of Athena, seven heroes journey to Rome to rescue a kidnapped friend and to recover the Athena Parthenos. This passage explores how closely linked Rick Riordan’s interpretations of Greek and Roman mythology are to the original sources. To do this, excerpts of ancient texts will be examined alongside the major encounters that the heroes face. The encounters that will be covered are eidolons, Echo and Narcissus, the Scolopendra, ichthyocentaurs, Heracles and Achelous, Chrysoar (also Chrysaor), the nymphaeum, Otis and Ephialtes, Arachne and the Athena Parthenos.
Riordan's eidolons are spirits that possess humans and automatons to kill and harm the heroes, a version of which can be found in Philostratus of Athens’ The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, where an eidolon possesses a young boy, causing him to act out of character. In this story, Apollonius commands the eidolon to leave its host, similar to how Piper compels the eidolons to leave, removing them from Percy, Jason and Leo. However, eidolons are more commonly portrayed as visible remnants of the deceased, instead of possessive spirits. While these eidolons did not have a physical body, they were so life-like that they could be mistaken for the real person. In Helen, Euripedes claims that the Trojan War was fought over Helen’s eidolon, while the real Helen was safely waiting in Egypt. Although Riordan’s interpretation of eidolons is uncommon, it is rooted in a Greek myth.
The encounter with Echo and Narcissus offers a different interpretation of the original myth. Narcissus was an extremely handsome hunter who broke many hearts. Nemesis, the Greek goddess of revenge, cursed Narcissus to fall in love with his reflection, causing him to stare at his mirror image until death. Echo was a nymph who loved Narcissus, but when spurned, she wasted away until only her voice remained. When the heroes encounter the pair, Narcissus’s vanity remains unchanged, but Echo’s behavior differs. Instead of becoming heartbroken and wasting away, she is determined to save him so that he does not suffer the same fate. By making Echo steadfast in her goal, Riordan provides Echo a greater dimension of character than in the original story. She is no longer fading away from self-pity, but is fueled with purpose to save the man she loves.
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The Mark of Athena
The Mark of Athena is an American fantasy-adventure novel written by Rick Riordan, based on Greek and Roman mythology. It was published on October 2, 2012, and is the third book in The Heroes of Olympus series, a sequel to the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. It is preceded by The Son of Neptune and followed by The House of Hades. The novel is narrated in the third-person.
The Mark of Athena received positive reviews from critics for its humor, characters, and mix of elements. Criticism was focused on its slow pace, action, and different perspectives. It has since been translated into many languages and released as a hardcover, e-book, audiobook, and paperback.
Six months after the events of The Lost Hero, Leo Valdez has constructed a flying trireme named Argo II, for use in the quest to Greece and Rome to stop Gaea from awakening. Leo Valdez, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and Annabeth Chase, accompanied by Coach Hedge, arrive at Camp Jupiter to rendezvous with Percy Jackson and Roman demigods Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque. Camp Jupiter's praetor Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano tells Annabeth that in order to unite Greek and Roman demigods against Gaea, they have to retrieve the Athena Parthenos, a giant statue of Athena that was stolen by the Romans from the Greeks in ancient times. The statue can only be retrieved by the demigod children of Athena through the help of the Mark of Athena, and no one has succeeded. Their conversation is interrupted by an Eidolon, who possesses Leo and forces him to attack the Roman camp. This causes the paranoid augur, Octavian, to convince the Romans that the Greeks are a threat and have to be destroyed.
The seven demigods escape Camp Jupiter and briefly land near the Great Salt Lake. While there, Leo meets Nemesis, who gives him a fortune cookie that will help him if he breaks it, though doing so has consequences. Then, the group heads to Kansas, where Percy, Jason, and Piper disembark to find Bacchus, who tells them that they should find Phorcys. Gaea sends Eidolons to possess Percy and Jason in Kansas but they are repelled by Piper's charmspeak. When the demigods meet Phorcys and his sister, Keto, at the Georgia Aquarium, they turn out to be hostile, and the demigods are forced to battle them. Throughout the journey, tensions rise between Hazel, Frank, and Leo, especially when Leo discovers that Hazel's previous boyfriend was Leo's identical-looking great-grandfather Sammy Valdez. The group also learn that Nico di Angelo, who has been captured by the Giants during his travel to find the Doors of Death, is dying and must be saved. While searching for the Mark of Athena at Fort Sumter in Charleston, the demigods are ambushed by the Romans, but Reyna decides to let Annabeth continue her search for the Athena Parthenos, telling her that their next encounter will not be friendly. Annabeth finds a map about the mark of Athena, and returns to the ship.
While crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the Argo II is attacked by the Scolopendra, one of Keto's children, and Leo, Frank, and Hazel are briefly sent underwater to Chiron's brother, the Ichthyocentaurs. While traveling to Rome, they dodge Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar and sail through the Mediterranean Sea, confronting Chrysaor along the way. There, the group splits up: Hedge guards the ship; Percy, Jason, and Piper scout the Colosseum; Frank, Hazel, and Leo search for Nico; and Annabeth looks for the Athena Parthenos. Percy and Jason defeat Ephialtes and Otis, the twin Giants who captured Nico, with the help of Bacchus. Frank, Hazel, and Leo are trapped by the Eidolons underground, but Leo uses his fortune cookie to bail them out. Annabeth, meanwhile, faces a variety of challenges, eventually confronting Arachne and defeats her using trickery, pushing her into Tartarus. The demigods secure the Athena Parthenos and save Nico; however, Arachne uses her remaining silk and pulls Annabeth and Percy into Tartarus; Percy hanging on the edge, asks Nico to meet them at the other side of the Doors of Death and falls into the abyss. Leo realizes that Percy and Annabeth's fall are the "consequences" mentioned by Nemesis and feels personally responsible. All the remaining members set sail for Greece.
In Rick Riordan’s works, the author utilizes ancient mythology to form the basis of his worlds. In The Mark of Athena, seven heroes journey to Rome to rescue a kidnapped friend and to recover the Athena Parthenos. This passage explores how closely linked Rick Riordan’s interpretations of Greek and Roman mythology are to the original sources. To do this, excerpts of ancient texts will be examined alongside the major encounters that the heroes face. The encounters that will be covered are eidolons, Echo and Narcissus, the Scolopendra, ichthyocentaurs, Heracles and Achelous, Chrysoar (also Chrysaor), the nymphaeum, Otis and Ephialtes, Arachne and the Athena Parthenos.
Riordan's eidolons are spirits that possess humans and automatons to kill and harm the heroes, a version of which can be found in Philostratus of Athens’ The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, where an eidolon possesses a young boy, causing him to act out of character. In this story, Apollonius commands the eidolon to leave its host, similar to how Piper compels the eidolons to leave, removing them from Percy, Jason and Leo. However, eidolons are more commonly portrayed as visible remnants of the deceased, instead of possessive spirits. While these eidolons did not have a physical body, they were so life-like that they could be mistaken for the real person. In Helen, Euripedes claims that the Trojan War was fought over Helen’s eidolon, while the real Helen was safely waiting in Egypt. Although Riordan’s interpretation of eidolons is uncommon, it is rooted in a Greek myth.
The encounter with Echo and Narcissus offers a different interpretation of the original myth. Narcissus was an extremely handsome hunter who broke many hearts. Nemesis, the Greek goddess of revenge, cursed Narcissus to fall in love with his reflection, causing him to stare at his mirror image until death. Echo was a nymph who loved Narcissus, but when spurned, she wasted away until only her voice remained. When the heroes encounter the pair, Narcissus’s vanity remains unchanged, but Echo’s behavior differs. Instead of becoming heartbroken and wasting away, she is determined to save him so that he does not suffer the same fate. By making Echo steadfast in her goal, Riordan provides Echo a greater dimension of character than in the original story. She is no longer fading away from self-pity, but is fueled with purpose to save the man she loves.