Many of the major Olympian Gods have made appearances in the two PERCY JACKSON films released to date, but what’s the real mythology behind their big-screen bows? Taking a closer look at the histories and motivations of all the Olympian gods that appear in the films, as well as the lord of the Underworld, Hades, and the story of Perseus on which Percy Jackson is loosely based, we sort movie fiction from mythical fiction.
APHRODITE
In the books, Aphrodite is known to be the mother of several of Percy’s campmates at Camp Half-Blood, and in fact they make a brief appearance in the film, distracting the attentions of Grover, who finds their beauty irresistible. In Greek mythology she’s one of the twelve major Olympians – the principal deities of the Greek pantheon. And she’s a hottie. The Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation was so beautiful that Zeus feared the gods’ rivalry over her would lead to war. So he married her to Hephaestus, whose ugliness and deformity wasn’t seen as much of a threat. Nice.
APOLLO
According to Rick Riordan’s books, there’ve been many famous demi-gods in human history, and Apollo is the father of the Bard himself, William Shakespeare. As the god of music, he’s also particularly fond of his iPod. In Greek myth, Apollo is another of the major twelve, and he’s also the god of poetry, plague, prophecy, sun, medicine, light and knowledge, as well as the patron of Delphi. He’s Artemis’s twin and proved his badass status aged just four days, when he defeated a dragon serpent called Python. A real political stirrer, he shot arrows of plague into the Greek encampment during the Trojan War, rescued the Trojan Diomedes and helped Paris guide an arrow into Achilles’ heel. His friendship with Hermes is well documented in myth, and he swapped the caduceus with Hermes in exchange for a set of reed pipes.
ARES
Ares is the father of Clarisse La Rue, who plays a big part in PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS (PJ:SOM), and he’s known for pushing his daughter to achieve ever greater feats. No wonder, then that in myth, Ares is the Greek god of war. One of the few children of Zeus and Hera, he’d often interfere in mortal conflicts and his blessings are known to give invincibility in battle. Assuming he doesn’t decide to change sides mid-battle, that is, which he’s sadly quite fond of. But he fares less well in divine contests, and has been stalemated, or outright defeated, by Heracles on two separate occasions. He was not known for being the best of losers.
ARTEMIS
The Greek goddess of the hunt, the Moon, chastity, animals and the wilderness, Artemis is the firstborn child of Zeus and Leto. She helped her mother deliver Apollo, making her a goddess of childbirth. She was Zeus’s favourite daughter and a passionate hunter, so when she was three her father granted her a wish of a silver bow. She befriended Orion, a fellow hunter, who was known for being a bit of a heartbreaker, and this angered her brother, who determined to kill Orion. While he was bathing, Apollo challenged his sister to shoot him in the head. Not knowing it was Orion, she did. It’s a bit like Romeo and Juliet, only with more arrows to the head.
ATHENA
Athena is Annabeth’s mother, and the pair meet when she and Percy visit Olympus during their quest to uncover the Lightning Thief. Annabeth tells Percy that she feels a telepathic bond with her mother. In Greek myth, Athena is the goddess of wisdom, handicrafts, useful arts and battle strategy. The daughter of Zeus and Metis, she was very nearly never born. There was a prophecy that Zeus’s son born with Metis would become more powerful than Zeus himself, which punctured his ego ever so slightly. He tricked Metis into taking the form of a fly and swallowed her. But he was rewarded with a terrible headache and he asked the Titan Prometheus to split his head open to find the problem. Athena sprung from Zeus’s head in full battle armour, issuing her battle cry. So the typical father-daughter bond, then. In the films, her pluck and courage can be found in Annabeth.
DEMETER
The Greek goddess of the harvest and agriculture, Demeter is the daughter of Kronos and Rhea, was swallowed by her father at birth and later saved by Zeus to help defeat the titans. She has a daughter, Persephone, who appears in PJ:TLF and is played by Rosario Dawson. In myth, Hades saw Persephone picking flowers outside the Underworld and fell immediately in love with her. Making a plan with his brother Zeus, Hades trapped Persephone and took her for his wife. Demeter quested to save her daughter, causing a barren earth and a famine amongst the mortals. On seeing this, Zeus forced Hades to return Persephone.
DIONYSUS
Dionysus runs Camp Half-Blood and is known by his students as “Mr. D”. The Greek god of the grape harvest, wine, parties and theatre, his father, Zeus, frequently punished him for his errant behavior. After chasing a wood nymph, Zeus charged him with the management of Camp Half-Blood for 100 years and forbade him from drinking wine during this period. But his love of the grape means he never stops trying, pouring glass after glass and watching it turn into water in front of his eyes. In myth, he’s the only Olympian to be born to a mortal parent, and spent his early life with Hermes. Perhaps one of the best-known stories about him is that of King Midas. Dionysus found his old school master Silenus missing. He had been drunk and wandered off before passing out in Midas’s rose garden – something of a faux-pas in ancient Greece. But rather than punishing him, Midas recognized the man and treated him well, entertaining him for ten days and nights with stories and song. When he returned him to Dionysus, the god offered Midas a reward of his choice. He asked that anything he touches be turned to gold, which Dionysus begrudgingly granted. The gift, once given, was not quite what he imagined, and he soon learned the downside when he found he could no longer feast or drink without turning his bread, meat and wine into gold.
HADES
One of the Big Three (along with his brothers Poseidon and Zeus), Hades is the eldest child of the titans Kronos and Rhea and spent his childhood with his brothers and sisters trapped in his father’s stomach. He was a keen architect of his father’s downfall, and though he was Kronos’ heir and the rightful successor to his domain, he agreed to split it with his brothers and took the Underworld for his prize while Zeus took the sky and Poseidon the sea. In the film he sends the Minotaur to abduct Percy’s mother, using her as a bargaining chip when he suspected Percy of stealing the Master Bolt. Percy journeys to Hades’ palace to save his mother, where he discovers Luke has planted the bolt on him. With the bolt in hand, Hades makes plans to overthrow Zeus as king of the gods, but his long-suffering, captured wife Persephone soon dampens those dreams.
HEPHAESTUS
The Greek god of forges, fire, technology, craftsmen, sculptors, volcanoes and blacksmiths, Hephaestus’ appearance in the films is a very kind one, because in legend, Hephaestus was ugly and deformed. In fact, he was thrown from Mt. Olympus by his parents, Hera and Zeus, for his ugliness and then further deformed by the fall to Earth. Poor god. Still, he clearly inspired some guilt in his father, who welcomed him back and apologized, and wed him to the beautiful Aphrodite to keep her unavailable and prevent a war amongst the gods for her beauty. She nevertheless had frequent affairs with Ares, for which Hephaestus’ jealousy ensured he would regularly try to publicly embarrass the pair in front of the other gods, the cheeky so-and-so.
HERA
The Greek goddess of air, familial love, heaven, marriage, motherhood and women, she is Zeus’s eldest sister and wife, making her the Queen of Olympus. As a wedding gift, Zeus gave her the golden apples of immortality, which are much more exciting than a toaster oven. But he was frequently unfaithful to her and had many demigod children by mortal women. She was infuriated by Zeus’s betrayals and made life hell for his demigod offspring, especially Hercules, who she tried to kill repeatedly. Not that she was much kinder to her own children: she did throw her ugly son Hephaestus from Mt. Olympus, after all.
HERMES
In the PERCY JACKSON films, Hermes is the father of Luke Castellan. The messenger of the gods, we meet Hermes as the man in charge of the Olympic Parcel Service, and he carries his symbol of power, Caduceus, a staff that takes the form of two intertwined snakes. This is a real part of the legend surrounding Hermes, and came to him in a deal he made with Apollo, in which he swapped some reed pipes he’d made. Hermes was born to Zeus and a nymph named Maia. Within minutes of his birth he’d stolen Apollo’s cattle, but his natural charm saved him from serious punishment at his father’s hands, and instead he was ordered to compensate Apollo. As the messenger of the gods he was a frequent intermediary with the mortal world, aiding Odysseus against Circe and siding with the Trojans during their war. Similar to the events of PJ:TLF, in myth Perseus was gifted a pair of Hermes’s winged sandals in his quest to behead Medusa.
POSEIDON
Another of the Big Three, Poseidon is the god of the sea and a son of Kronos and Rhea. In the PERCY JACKSON films, Poseidon is Percy’s father. In myth, he carries a powerful Trident to symbolize his authority amongst the gods. When he and his brothers overthrew Kronos, he was given the sea to preside over. While in the PERCY JACKSON films, Percy and Athena’s daughter Annabeth are firm friends, in legend, Poseidon and Athena had a long rivalry that began when they both desired patronage of the city of Attica. The people of the city instructed the gods to offer them gifts for the city and their favor. Poseidon made a salt-water spring, while Athena offered an olive tree. The people of the city chose Athena and renamed their home Athens in her honor. He’s probably still smarting about that one.
ZEUS
Zeus is the King of Olympus and the god of honor, justice, lightning and the skies. When he and his brothers Poseidon and Hades overthrew Kronos, he was given the sky as his domain. He was the youngest son of Kronos and Rhea, and since Kronos believed he was fated to be overthrown by his children, he swallowed Zeus’ elder siblings as soon as they were born. Angered by his actions, Rhea gave birth to Zeus in secret and tricked Kronos into swallowing a disguised stone instead. When he learned of his parentage, Zeus infiltrated Kronos’ palace and secured a position as his father’s cupbearer. He fed his father a mixture of mustard and wine, forcing him to regurgitate his other children. Together, they took revenge on their father and declared war against him. Gives a new meaning to family strife, doesn’t it?
And a very important demigod… PERSEUS
As his name implies, Percy Jackson has a lot in common with the mythological demigod Perseus, but they don’t share a father. In myth, Perseus is actually the son of Zeus and a mortal woman, Danae. His mother was locked in a prison by her own father, King Acrisius of Argos, who had been told a prophecy that his daughter’s son would one day kill him. Through the one small window in her prison, Zeus saw her and fell in love with her, and together they had Perseus. He’s best known for his quest to retrieve the head of Medusa, a quest that took in many of the characters and creatures featured in the PERCY JACKSON series. He slayed Medusa with the help of Hermes, Athena and Hades, and took away the Gray Sisters’ eye to taunt them into helping him. After achieving his quest Perseus went on to live a long, happy life, and in the PERCY JACKSON series, Percy’s mother chose his name because Perseus was one of the few heroes of myth to have such a happy end.
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