While it's obvious to the reader that Meg's divine parentage is Demeter, nobody in-universe can seem to connect the dots. However, Apollo is specifically stated to have a muddled mind and the people who saw her powers before the reveal wouldn't have recognised it — Percy doesn't know many children of Demeter, and Chiron by default is always skeptical despite having ideas. It's also made apparent that Meg's own demigod abilities are at an unusually higher level than the average child of Demeter. So much so that despite her use of Imperial Gold weapons, she couldn't possibly be the daughter of Ceres, Demeter's Roman equivalent, as the former isn't as powerful compared to their ancient form.
Plus there are other vegetation gods and goddesses. Even if one were to rule out the minor gods due to how powerful she is, Dionysus is also a vegetation god, so he was still a possible parent until Meg was officially claimed. And Meg was described as somewhat pudgy, which Percy used as a description for the Cabin 12 twins when he first saw them (and Dionysus himself).
One thing that wasn't touched upon in Heroes of Olympus was the fact that Apollo's Roman aspect's name was the exact same as his Greek name — and here it'll make things much less confusing.
Apollo can't understand Paolo speaking Portuguese, but he can understand Chiara speaking Italian, since he decides not to translate her. This could be because Mount Olympus was in Italy for a while at some point (probably during the Renaissance), after Latin died out. Or, it could be because Italian is the language of music — a lot of terms used to describe music or notate how it should be played are in Italian, and Apollo uses such terms to describe his heartbeat earlier in the book. Some fans have speculated that all Apollo kids can speak Italian the same way the Aphrodite kids can speak French, the language of love.
It could be both.
In The Blood of Olympus, Nico was able to understand Portuguese a little bit due to the fact that it is a Romance language and has some similarities to his native Italian. But here Apollo makes it clear that gods have an aversion to things like study and practice. So not only has he not bothered to use the Berlitz Portuguese DVD's that Athena once gave him for Saturnalia, but it goes against his habits to try to learn things in a conventional way. He probably picked up Italian during the Renaissance because it was heavily associated with the arts as noted above. Trying to use his knowledge of Italian and Latin to translate Portuguese would constitute actual work though, and so he isn't inclined to make the effort.
A Tumblr theory suggests that from a historical context, Nico, being from Venice, would likely understand Portuguese through Venetian (being chronologically in his 70s or 80s, he would likely be part of the generation that speaks the language fluently before it began to die out), which is more closely related to Portuguese than Standard Italian, and would therefore understand Paolo better than others.
Rachel's jealousy of the other oracles makes perfect sense. She surrendered all possibility of love and marriage to dedicate herself to Apollo as his one-and-only Delphic Oracle and then she finds out he's been seeing other oracles behind her back.
Calypso says Leo has great affection for Apollo— of course he would, Apollo is directly responsible for Leo being alive. Apollo supplied the final ingredient for the physician's cure and directed Leo to his son, Asclepius, the only god who could prepare it. Leo's plan to make the world fall to fire and keep his oath to Calypso via dying, then abusing the loophole of a demigod only being able to find Ogygia once in a lifetime... Apollo confirmed its merit and ensured its success. For his part, Apollo seems to admire Leo just as much as he does Percy or his own kids, calling him a "gentleman and a genius" to his face, for inventing the Valdezinator. It's true to the myths: Leo's inspiration to trade Apollo a musical instrument was the story of Hermes avoiding Apollo's wrath for stealing his cows in the same way, and Percy says in his Greek Gods book that Apollo and Hermes were great friends ever afterward.
After the three-legged death course, the majority of campers have some serious injuries. However, Nico and Will seem perfectly fine without even mention of minor scratches or bruises. Well, who spent months and months exploring the old and more malevolent Labyrinth? Nico probably knows the Labyrinth better than just about anyone alive.
Nico is also one of the most powerful and dangerous demigods alive. Between his swordsmanship and Will's archery, they complement each other's fighting styles very well, and they're also close emotionally, which means they can work together better than most teams.
Thinking about all the major threats to the gods so far, they themselves form a Triumvirate — Kronos, Gaea, then the Triumvirate.
The Triumvirate has been around for YEARS if not more. Why wait until now to show up? The common saying — if you want a job done right, do it yourself. Naturally, they are of course going to do it themselves because their previous two plans failed.
On top of that, the Triumvirate being the Man Behind the Man for the past two series' worth of villains is itself an example of this, as Rome is known for coopting religion in the service of the state, Roman emperors using religion as a means of solidifying their power, from the Greek pantheon to, eventually, Christianity itself.
Not to mention, a lot of demigods have presumably been killed fighting Kronos and Gaea's forces. This may be the best time for them to act, after the camps are weakened but before they can recruit and train more demigods to replenish their losses.
And on top of THAT, as noted above, the Triumvirate makes a triumvirate of threats, after Kronos and Gaea. Possibly the Fates wove that on purpose.
Meg appeared at just the right time — had she come to Camp Half Blood displaying her Roman training despite being a child of Demeter, the Greek aspect of Ceres, naturally people would have been asking questions and possibly spoiled all the Triumvirate's plans at starting a Greco-Roman civil war — by the time Meg appears to the campers, they already know of a Roman camp.
Apollo describes Oujime/Jaime using a "double-sided hockey stick" and he commanded lightning a different way than Zeus did. Some people might think about Thor, but wait a second! A double sided hockey stick as a weapon? And it's mentioned that he is Yoruban? That seems to be an allusion to Shango.
Even better: The Yoruba religion is ancestor to Voodoo. Marie Levesque, a New Orleans fortuneteller, was described by Hecate as having real magical potential, and Hazel confirmed her grandmother, Marie's mother, had been a slave (of whom Yoruba were among the people taken for the trade). Could Rick be hinting he chose the Yoruba for a reason?
If Hazel has a connection to another pantheon, that would make her part of a growing list of the seven who could have ties to other pantheons, including Leo's Aztec ancestors, Annabeth's distant status as a legacy of Frey, and Frank's ancestor's legacies in both the Chinese and possibly even Japanese worlds.
Apollo, the sun god, thinks that the world revolves around him.
With the identity of the Triumvirate revealed, two of them are related by blood (Nero, Caligula), but one of them, Commodus, isn't, and was chosen to be a buffer between Nero and Caligula. Why him specifically? He sticks out a bit. Well, consider that Commodus, while still evil, is, as shown in The Dark Prophecy, more interested in himself than allying with Nero or Caligula against the other. This ensures that Nero and Caligula can't go to him and use their combined resources to wipe out the other. This is how Commodus stabilizes everything... and why they didn't pick Tiberius or Domitian. (Nero would especially not be fond of him).
In fact, book number four in the series shows Caligula teaming up with Commodus... for exactly this reason — because he wanted to get rid of Nero eventually.
However, this is also Fridge Brilliance—it only happens when Caligula's power base is strong enough for this to happen. Most likely, both he and Nero knew one would ally with Commodus against the other, but Caligula moved faster.
Why do the Triumvirate focus on less famous monsters? Two reasons: one the Emperors were kept alive by being remembered and can appeal to the barely known monsters as a 'we did this, so you can too'. The other reason is that the Triumvirate spent most of the franchise as the men behind the enemies the Olympians faced. People pay attention to what the monsters who fought Hercules, Jason, and the other great heroes did, who would spare a second glance at what the Pandai or Blemmyae are doing?
It would also be easier to control them than, say, the empousai, who are constantly out for demigod blood, or the Minotaur, who doesn't exactly blend in anywhere outside of Tartarus.
With 'The Ship of the Dead' ending just after the events of 'The Burning Maze', and Frank and Hazel set for 'The Tyrant's Tomb', Rick has nicely set up two of each for their reaction to Jason's death. First in Burning Maze we have Piper and Leo, then in Ship of the Dead Percy and Annabeth, and the Tyrant's Tomb will show Frank and Hazel's reaction.
Caligula has a habit of taking people at their wordand doing horrible stuff to them when he's angry. The only person shown to not suffer was Apollo, when he was disguised as an actor. Why not him? Apollo was the only one to act on his word. Caligula finds mindless agreement dull, so it amuses him to see people eat their words. Meanwhile, Apollo made a fool of himself in front of the entire party, and made Caligula laugh.
Ares is said to struggle with roundhouse kicks and that they are a difficult martial art to master. Rick could have no idea about fighting, or he could be referencing how Ares in the old myths was a Miles Gloriosus and beaten up by mortals, demigods, and everything else quite frequently. Apollo's previously mentioned to not like learning new things if he doesn't need to, so he never bothered to see if Ares was full of it. Similarly/in addition, it takes a certain amount of skill and practice to master any move. However, to a god who thinks themself superior to everyone else, they probably wouldn't want to bother practicing anything—look how bad Apollo was at archery when he didn't have divine skill backing him up!
In the Heroes of Olympus both Jason and Percy were said to have a look of dreading the monster they could never defeat that would end their life. While metaphoric, Jason's life was ended by a monster: the emperor Caligula.
Apollo talks about how it was Rome that made the Olympian power as grand as it was, which begs the question of why Alexander's conquests didn't do the same. The rapid dissolution of Alexander's conquests into tatters, and how Hellenic realms in Selucid Persia and Ptolmec Egypt were merged with the existing cultures into something not quite Greek is a likely reason. Rome stood for much longer, and it was much more clearly Roman.
It might also have a sheer case of many of these gods being the The Older Immortal to many of the Olympians: Apollo's given age of four thousand, six hundred and twelve years puts him, by clear succession Artemis, and likely several of the other Olympians such as Dionysus and Hermes as younger than the earliest known civilization in human records in Egypt and Mesopotamia (also the Indus River Valley, China, Mesoamerica...). Gods like Marduk and Horus, who Apollo specifically mentioned, are probably older than many of the Olympians, with many in the Egyptian Pantheon likely having been around when Kronos was still king. A lot of what the Olympians would later be famous for, like Demigods and God Wars, were likely already done by these pantheons with fellows like Gilgamesh and Set's actions in Egypt. They'd always be viewed as upstarts by them, and only be taken somewhat seriously when they had a big empire like Rome form and not disintegrate like Alexander's.
It also gives a bit of a context to the Olympians (and the Egyptians over in the Kane books) occasionally are a bit flippant about devastation of the human world beyond just being jerks or being above humans: Both pantheons would have lived through the Bronze Age Collapse and the resulting dark age worthy of the tropes End of an Age and After the End. They know humanity can recover from it and keep them going through it.
Apollo recognizes that the answer to one of the questions in the Burning Maze is "Tarquin," not "Tarquinis," the middle tunnel. Not only is it because the maze is giving him the finger, but also, the first question was in English and not Ancient Greek. So of course the answer to this question is also in English rather than Latin!
When Hazel sees Apollo and Meg after the battle at the end of The Tyrant's Tomb, she seems overjoyed at first, only panicking slightly when she sees Frank isn't with them. There's your first clue that Frank's not really dead, since she's been able to detect deaths before.
It would actually work as Fridge Brilliance either way—there's a whole battle going on, so it's possible that even if he had died and she'd sensed his death, she wouldn't necessarily realize it was his, or else that she was distracted fighting for her life and wouldn't notice it at all.
Lavinia's Informed Judaism makes a kind of sense: Unlike Magnus, Apollo probably knows very little about the Abrahmaic religions, and so wouldn't question the oddity of a Jewish girl being a Roman.note Firstly, there's the multiple gods vs one God issue that Samirah dealt with in the Norse series. Secondly, while a lot of Jews lived in the Roman Empire (there was that one very famous guy who got crucified), not many lived in Rome itself, and at the time there was a lot of hatred and fear towards the Romans due to their persecution. There were in fact multiple Jewish rebellions against the Empire, most of which were put down very brutally. Of course, the Doylist answer is that Riordan might've just decided to make her a Token Minority without really covering it.
Honestly, a demigod from an Abrahamic religion isn't as weird as everyone seems to make it. It's already been established with Piper's dad that not everyone the gods date knew they were having relations with a Greek god. Lavinia's dad had a fling and she left him with a kid. It happens. He's Jewish. He raises a Jewish kid. She gets taken to camp, and she doesn't just forget how she was raised, especially when you considered being Jewish is as much cultural as it is religious. She's not a Jewish girl who's a Roman. She's a Jewish girl who just so happens to have a Roman god for a mom. People of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds have relations all the time, and as we saw with Samirah that doesn't even necessarily invalidate their faith.
"Gods have great power, but only humans have creativity, the power to change history." This quote by Ishkander in the Kane Chronicles applies to the entirety of the franchise, and it comes into great focus in this series as we follow a god. Interacting with mortals and being affected by their perspectives is what gives gods the ability to grow and develop. Apollo's developments and Dionysus's bonds with his children are two somewhat clear examples, but even Hera seems to have gained a greater connection to mortal things and morality than she usually has with Jason, especially after his death, while understanding this general lack of a connection she generally has with mortals even in the previous series as expressed by Juno. This concept goes into various other gods in the series who've grown and changed from their historical counterparts like Poseidon, Hades, and Mars. The one god who hasn't changed is Zeus, who sees not connecting with mortals in any way to be a sign of superiority and a punishment to be stuck with them (again, see Apollo and Dionysus).
Throughout the series, Apollo makes multiple pop culture references, like Frozen and Hamilton. While yes, they are anachronistic as the series technically takes place in 2011, Apollo's still the god of prophecy. Plus, one of the things those two references in particular have in common is that they are musicals (the former being basically a cartoon musical), and Apollo presides over that too as a god.
Oh, and the fact that the two media began writing and development before 2011, so being a god, Apollo might have had some insider knowledge ahead of time.
The "advanced commentary" of Tower of Nero by Dionysus is "What'd I miss?", which is both a nod to how Dionysus hadn't appeared since the last series and possibly a Shout-Out to Hamilton... which is a musical and falls under the genre of medium of theatre. The musical is just as much Dionysus' domain as Apollo's.
it can't take place in 2011 if the Karpos saying its own name is referred to as Grooting rather than Pokémon Speak by Percy and if Apollo's Narration also makes references to Pokemon Go. And all the other dated references.
There's another possible reason why the Leontocephaline let Lu take Nero's fasces beyond simple amusement over her Loophole Abuse. The Leontocephaline is an eternal celestial being created by Mithras to watch over the stars. He would probably see guarding a wannabe god's source of immortality and divine power as beneath him and was willing to take the first excuse to hand it over.
Frank's surviving the piece of wood being burned was actually subtly foreshadowed all the way back in Son of Neptune. Iris (who knows more than a bit about defying expectations/destined roles herself) says that Frank is destined to die holding the piece of wood unless he gives it to someone he trusts. By entrusting Hazel and later Leo with it, he becomes much less dependent and more willing to share the burden, unlike Meleager.
Wait, just where did the Colossus's head land? If it landed in the water, it would be somewhat alright, but what if it hit something on land?
It landed in the water. There was even a comment about it probably making a good home for fish.
Nero mentions that one reason that the Triumvirate is still alive is because of things like Wikipedia and the Renaissance, because they were remembered. Great job, history class — we are the reason that the Triumvirate did all these terrible things.
On the other hand, what is preventing other heroes (Achilles, the original Perseus, Diomedes of Argos, Theseus, etc.) from being still alive? Since they are famous, if not more so than Nero.
Well, Nero at least, might have never actually died per say: there was only ever one true witness to his dying moments (someone who attempted to save him from death at that), so it's possible he faked his own death and it's someone else's body burred in Pincian Hill.
Theseus, Achilles, and Perseus are all very much dead. We saw Theseus' ghost being summoned by Nico in Battle of the Labyrinth, and his bones are allegedly buried in Athens. Achilles' ghost/soul was seen in the underworld. Perseus got turned into the constellation that bears his name after dying of old age.
Roman theology held that all Emperors became gods at the moment of death — hence the Emperor Vespasian's dying words "Oh, dammit, I think I'm becoming a god". This isn't the case for other heroes, with a few rare exceptions such as Hercules.
What if Meg isn't the only Demigod kept away from all the Greek or Roman divine parentage, and what if Nero and the other two members of the Triumvirate kidnapped and brainwashed other demigods?
Based on what was said about it, I think it's safe to assume that Meg isn't the only demigod under the Triumvirate's control. The Imperial household Nero mentioned is possibly made up of the demigods he's kidnapped and brainwashed.
Meg: If you're a demigod on the streets, you hear about the Beast. He takes people like me.
Confirmed in book 2, where some of the demigods in the emperor's imperial household show up and fight on their lord’s behalf.
And even more Fridge Horror: Luke, Thalia, and Annabeth were demigods, and on the streets too. They really dodged a bullet — cause the Beast could have easily gotten to them before they got to Camp Half Blood. Just imagine what would have happened if Nero did get his hands on them — especially Thalia. (Since after all she is the subject of a prophecy and was older than Percy...)
Not just them, Leo was often on the road too. He could have also suffered such a fate.
Remember how the Nosoi sought out the newly-human Apollo, explicitly mentioning how once he was dead they'd be free to roam as they wish? And killing Nosoi isn't his only job, so what happens if Apollo does die while human? Who takes over Delphi, assuming they can kill Pythos, and who takes over his other duties?
It gets mentioned that Rachel has very limited prophecy still, but that Python will eventually be the permanent oracle.
Speaking of the Nosoi, they establish a very important little detail: major gods have enemies. Lots of enemies, and like the Nosoi, small insignificant foes for Olympians suddenly become a major threat when forced into human form. Suddenly everybody and anybody with a grudge against him can hunt him down.
Apollo has been turned mortal twice beforehand. Whose to say he won't return tohis usual self once he becomes a god again?
One thing that alleviates the fridge horror here is that apparently, this is the first time he's been left totally mortal without any powers to speak of. Alternatively, a possibility that's actually more horror filled is this; assuming that he actually learned lessons from those previous times, what if Apollo was actually worse before those transformations?
There's a little bit of further proof of this in book 2: Apollo mentions he dislikes slavery because of the previous times Zeus turned him into one. Which means we have no idea what his opinion on the topic would have been if he hadn't had those experiences...
In the next paragraph, he says his temple in Delphi was used to free slaves where he'd become their new master and setting them free. This is something that is stated to have occurred before his previous 2 times being enslaved, so presumably he was never that fond of the practice.
Apollo is bonding with his children, yay! Except...he's an immortal god. They are mortal demigods. As a result, those children he bonded with? Yeah, he gets to watch them die. In fact, this carries more horror; that the reason gods don't usually speak to their children is that they don't want to get too attached for when they inevitably die.
At one point Apollo mentions that the Huntresses of Artemis tend to set up a bunch of booby traps and alarms whenever he hangs around. Consider the story of Callisto—one of Artemis' huntresses who was raped by Zeus, a story Riordan acknowledges in one of his anthology books of Greek myths. Suddenly the fact that they set up alarms whenever a powerful male god is in the vicinity becomes a case of being Properly Paranoid. Even if Apollo isn't going to try anything, Artemis knows from experience that male members of her immediate family can't be trusted. Besides which, the stories of Daphne and Cassandranote Though most stories of Cassandra have her rebuking Apollo's advances, some claim she was one of his priestesses and got cursed for breaking her vows; right now it's unknown which version Rick is going to use are proof he doesn't have a perfect track record.
Apollo is also noted to happily flirt with the Huntresses, but only gets interested if they flirt back — and the only one who does is a goddess who can and has tricked him more than once. While Apollo might think it's just harmless fun, some of the Huntresses themselves might be afraid that if they flirt back they're painting targets on their back — especially since some men and patriarchal cultures take any sign of affection from a woman as an excuse to say "she was asking for it."
In the Greek Gods book, it's noted that Artemis told Callisto that had she told her about the rape immediately and didn't try to hide it, she would have let her retire from the Hunt with full honours—"[Artemis] would have found [Callisto] a rich, handsome husband and let [her] settle into a new life in a city of [her] choice", as the book says, and the reason Callisto was turned into a bear was because of her dishonesty. So it's more likely that this applies to other Hunters who broke their vows of chastity (willingly or unwillingly)—had they told her upfront that they wanted to date [insert person here] and wished to give up their vows, or their vow was broken without their consent through rape, she would have let them go without consequence, with Emmie and Jo presumably being examples of this. But since many of those Hunters likely hid their relationships from Artemis, or like Callisto, didn't tell her about being raped as a Huntress, they didn't get off easy.
Just how much kind of injuries did Britomartis inflict on Apollo? Granted, this is probably more imagining Amusing Injuries.
Apollo off-handedly mentions having to dodge Chinese dragons when flying his sun chariot, which seems like just an off-the-cuff gag about driving hazards. However, according to Chinese superstition, Solar Eclipses occur when dragons try to eat the sun.
Similarly, the mention of Sol being chased like wolves. Those wolves chasing her, led by Sköll son of Fenris, will cause Ragnarok when they devour her. If Chinese dragons attempt to eat the sun, has Sköll ever tried to eat Apollo?
Percy mentions during his Greek Gods and Heroes book that his mother named him after the hero Perseus because he was the only Greek hero who got a happy ending. Jason unfortunately meets a sad end, like the hero he was named after, after suffering a rough period after the Argo trip ended just as the original Jason did, though unlike his namesake it wasn't self inflicted.
It also shows a very distinct difference between Sally and Beryl: Sally named Percy as she did to try and keep him safe, while Beryl named Jason as she did to try and keep Hera from killing her. The selfless mother's son lived, the selfish mother's did not.
As per The Burning Maze, we know how Apollo became the Sun God (and most likely, Artemis the Moon Goddess): They woke up one day as it. No trace of Helios anywhere, and most likely Selene as well. Normal nightmare fuel sure, but then you start to think back to earlier events. Apollo mentions that Immortals Fear Death, because that is what death is to them. It's not a gradual process like in humans. This is what happened to Cottus and Gygus, Briares's brothers: he woke up one day and couldn't find them. Pan was unusual because the Satyrs tethered him for so long. One has to wonder if part of the Olympians bitterness at one another (for example Aphrodite's lack of caring at Artemis's fate) compared to the other pantheons seen is because they fear just vanishing one day and finding one of the others with their job, a concern not really shared by the Egyptian or Norse gods? How many nightmares does Zeus have where Ares or Apollo wake up with his job and he's no where to be found? This could even factor into their tendency to mock humans a lot: if a change in belief can cause Helios and Selene to vanish like that, they might secretly fear mortals for having the power to do so.
By naming a trope after them, ThisVeryWiki helped immortalize two of the worst tyrants this world has ever seen.
Given how massive and volatile Nero's Greek Fire stash is, when triggered on New York it could have easily set Brooklyn House which is on the opposite riverside, on fire from the proximity alone as well since their realities are connected by the mortal world. The Kanes along with their students will have no idea why they are spontaneously on fire.
The reason why the Triumvirate Emperors are still alive is because they were deified by the Empire, allowing them to ascend to minor godhood. Fostering a cult of personality is a tactic used by vicious tyrants and dictators long after Caligula, Commodus, and Nero. Are Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Benito Mussolini, and Mao Zedong still around, waiting to strike again? As the continued existence of the Emperors themselves shows, worship being replaced with hatred and disgust towards them in the modern day don't affect them, as long as they're immortalized through cultural memory. And these guys have a lot more impact on public consciousness than three ancient emperors.
Probably not. Unless they were actually deified in their lifetime, instead of just Personaity Cult.
Apollo is a sentient person who knows humans and is relatively involved in human culture, who is 4,612 years old. This means that not only has he watched all his humans friends, lovers, and children die over and over again, but has watched entire cultures and peoples die out, over and over again. Society has become completely unrecognizable over and over. No wonder he’s so distant and not empathic.
suggests that from a historical context, Nico, being from Venice, would likely understand Portuguese through Venetian (being chronologically in his 70s or 80s, he would likely be part of the generation that speaks the language fluently before it began to die out), which is more closely related to Portuguese than Standard Italian, and would therefore understand Paolo better than others.