After 2000 years of separation, the goddess Athena attends a modern-day school in order to seek revenge on Poseidon's reincarnation, Adrian Lee... Too bad it ain't that easy. The boy is considered a Doom Magnet by many due to the Curse placed by Zeus, and despite Athena initially exploiting the loneliness Adrian suffers to get closer to him, the ghosts of the past gradually start creeping in...
Athena Complex is a fantasy webtoon and inspired by Greek mythology drawn and written by Kaisar. It can be read here
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Athena Complex contains examples of:
- The Ace:
- Athena is very wealthy, attractive, and talented in every subject, being especially Good with Numbers, languages, sports... and unofficial investigations. Crossed as Chick Magnet, as she poses as a male exchange student who most girls in the school are attracted to "him". They are only kept away by his apparent friendship with Adrian, a Cosmic Plaything who brings calamity to everyone around him.
- Apollo has a very wide divine portfolio as God of the Sun, healing, and music. His position is only beneath Zeus and Athena.
- Action Girl: Athena, Nike, Artemis, and Hera. Completely justified by either being in charge of a military-like area and/or being in turbulent times. Crossed with The Strategist in Athena's case, as the goddess of wisdom.
- The Ageless: The gods do not die of old age and have Super-Toughness, but unlike the Greek gods of myth, it is entirely possible if difficult to kill them. The exceptions are the Fates, who were born from Chaos, the universe's first and oldest being.
- Amazonian Beauty: Athena's slender but strong build, as pointed out by Nike.
- Amazon Brigade: Artemis's divine servants consist of several nymphs who assist in her hunts.
- Animal Motifs:
- Athena is associated with owls AKA Iolo, who acts as The Consigliere and Barrier Warrior.
- Poseidon is frequently associated with giant horses.
- Hermes is associated with messenger pigeons, which he uses for transport purposes or spy on other gods through magic as part of Zeus' Big Brother Is Watching.
- Ares is associated with dogs, especially hounds.
- Another Dimension: Cronus was associated with time, in particular as a preserving force in other realm. It is implied that his remains keep the ability. Some gods like Athena use them to trap enemies there.
- Antagonist in Mourning: By the time of Poseidon's demise, Athena was the one responsible for his defeat and capture to his execution. Nevertheless, when the sentence was carried out, she was reduced to tears.
- Anti-True Sight: After Sibyl Cha notices Athena's true form, Athena has Iolo block it with a spell.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: How deities decide their leader. Among the Titans, Cronus became their leader by overthrowing Ouranos. Among the Olympians, Zeus became their ruler by overthrowing Cronus and no one - except Athena and his brothers - rivals him.
- Badass Pacifist: What Athena strives to achieve by avoiding and/or winning wars with less casualties as possible, in part due to Poseidon's influence.
- Bathtub Scene: In episode 2.
- Berserk Button: Never mention Poseidon's name in Zeus's presence.
- The Big Bad: Despite his Dark and Troubled Past and Royals Who Actually Do Something status, Zeus is a very cruel, pervert, yet observant, sly king who keeps peace and entertainment (banquets, lovers) in Olympus only for his own benefit, even if it means abusing his most threatening (mostly innocent) children and subjects.
- Bigger on the Inside: When Athena and two of her servants become Adrian's new neighbors, they not only repair the house next door, they enchant it to become a manor on the inside.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Just about anyone with any relation to the gods falls under this, not to mention the Olympians themselves.
- Blood Knight: Crossed with Ax-Crazy. Ares enjoys fighting against strong opponents and the brutality of war.
- Born Unlucky: How Adrian earned the nickname "The Human Calamity."
- Blow You Away:
- Nike, the titaness of victory and Athena's servant, is noted for having giant wings. She can flight at high speeds, throw away others with a breeze, or create slicing currents.
- As the god of the sky, Zeus can manipulate the wind as a form telekinesis and flying.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: If Ares stabs someone, they would do ANYTHING he asks for. He can also possesses them for a while.
- Broken Pedestal: Athena idolized Poseidon as her mentor, friend, and the first person who accepted her... but he then rejected her crush, (deliberately) insulted her lack of femininity, married another, rebelled against Zeus when she remained loyal, and claimed only ever aided her because he hoped what Zeus did to her mother would make her a useful tool against him but since she remained loyal to Zeus she was useless to his plans.
- Brought Down to Normal: Zeus punished Poseidon's rebellion by condemning him to being human.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: What Aphrodite gloats about to Athena.
- By-the-Book Cop: Surprisingly, unless the case doesn't involve Poseidon, Athena usually followed the rules and doesn't tend to have mercy for those who doesn't, unless there is an actual justification. Just ask Arachne.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: No matter their age, pretty much all of the male characters are beautiful. There's a good number of Bishounen (Apollo, Ganymede, Hermes, and Zeus in his natural form), Hunks (Ares, Hephaestus, adult Poseidon), while Iolo and Zeus in his preferred form are solid cases of Silver Fox.
- Creepy Cave: The spider-webbed, dark cave where the Fates were born and currently live. The original, souless body of Poseidon is kept there.
- Cool Big Bro:
- Apollo loves Artemis, whom he considers his "muse" despite their distance after she took over the Forest of Dreams. Played for Laughs for his figurines of her.
- Crossed with Cool Big Sis. Athena was practically raised by her older half-siblings, Apollo and Artemis, who taught her archery and the truths of Olympus. The two are fiercely protective of their little sister, though their methods are different - Apollo eventually helps in Athena quest about Poseidon's curse despite his own doubts, while Artemis once tried to murder Poseidon for breaking Athena's heart.
- Commonality Connection: The reason Adrian and Sibyl are one another's Only Friends. Both of them are strongly disliked by everyone around them.
- The Conscience: Iolo occasionally points it out when Athena is acting petty, and she says he's good at making her feel bad.
- Cosmic Plaything: Poseidon rebelled against Zeus. When Athena defeated him, the other gods killed his godly body and cursed him to endlessly reincarnate as a human with a Born Unlucky Curse designed to make him miserable.
- Curse: Unavoidable, given that these are the Greek gods that we are talking about.
- Disappointed by her husband Ouranos and son Cronus, Gaia, the mother of the first gods, cursed her most powerful descendants to become The Kingslayer s and Archnemesis Dad s who would be overthrown by their children again and again until the gods got extinct.
- Zeus cursed Nike to remain powerless and small, despite she left the Titans to join the gods, possibly as a way to control her. She can only return to her true form a few times at day.
- What doomed Poseidon to become reincarnated as human. Zeus cursed him to endlessly reincarnate as an unlucky human. Particularly notable is the fact that the curse also isolates his reincarnations by making those around him suffer as well, despite the fact that even the Greek gods consider a divine curse a big enough penalty to outlaw impacting unrelated humans.
- In the past, Athena transformed the mortal weaver Archane into a spider for openly mocking the Olympian gods, as her duty pushed her to do so.
- Artemis turned a rapist human into a deer she regularly hunts.
- Poseidon himself places one on Ares, leaving him trapped in the form of a powerless dog.
- Dark World: There is a place at the bottom of reality called the shadow world, where the real world is visible but cannot be interacted with. Artemis's servants banish Adrian there when they want to hunt him down and kill him.
- Does Not Like Men: Pretty much the only guys Artemis is pleasant to are Apollo and Poseidon... before the latter abandoned her sister. She mostly hates those who take sexual advantage of women, especially Zeus for abandoning her mother. Thus, Artemis sometimes turns abusive male lovers into deer, whom she and her nymphs hunt for centuries.
- Doom Magnet: Adrian's reputation is this, which makes him incredibly discriminated by others.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Zeus's natural form could easily pass for a girl.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Blood-thirsty brute? Absolutely. But Ares states that gender doesn't matter as a warrior.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Tom Kang feeds a group of street cats. When two servants of Artemis start to approach him to use him as a pawn to kill Adrian, the cats start snarling.
- The Exile:
- As a child, Athena was exiled by her father from Olympus to Tartarus, an underworld prison which rots the mind, out of caution if she was really the child of the prophecy. However, she was actually hidden from other gods in Apollo's palace until Poseidon managed to convince Zeus to let her return.
- The Fates were once Zeus's most prominent advisors, but deliberately failed to warn him about Poseidon's rebellion to support their own schemes. When Zeus discovered this, he banished them from Olympus to the temple they were born to. They still come to give advice once in a while to give advice since Atropos used Poseidon's remains to find his reincarnation at the divine ruler's request.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Tom is already an incredible fighter under normal circumstances. Artemis's servants then imbue him with the power to use ice magic so they can use him as a puppet to kill Adrian.
- Engineered Heroics:
- Most of Adrian's bad luck is the result of his curse, but Athena actively arranges a few of the incidents she saves him from to make him feel all the more indebted.
- Athena starts following Sibyl around, knowing it will agitate the jealous girls that think she's a handsome man, and result in them trapping Sibyl. She then tries to offer Sibyl her assistance, in the hopes Sibyl will reciprocate and repair her relationship with Adrian. Sibyl isn't fooled at first, but her suspicions disappear ironically enough after Athena gives up and helps her for real.
- Extra Oredinary: Ares has power over metal. He mainly uses it to summon weapons like machine guns.
- A Family Affair: Crossed with All Girls Want Bad Boys. Aphrodite's favorite lover was Ares, the bloodthirsty god of war, despite being married to his full-brother, the more humble Hephaestus. While their personal relationship is bad, Ares is a loyal costumer to the forge god, who taught him how to create a metallic mirror of Aegis' size as a counterattack.
- Family Eye Resemblance: Metis and Athena have the same eyes.
- Forced Transformation: After defeating Ares, Poseidon leaves him trapped in the form of a small dog.
- Foreign Exchange Student: Athena claims to be a new student from Greece.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Ares had a very difficult character to deal with and was therefore rather unpopular among the other deities (except Aphrodite and Hera) and mankind. After hearing his most recent incident, Apolo immediately suggested Athena's servants to kill Ares, as no one would miss the most inactive Olympian.
- Functional Magic: More or less the nature of magic in this setting. Deities use their respective powers to control different aspects of the world. In daily issues, all deities, monsters, and divine servants can use telepathy to send messages or pictures to others, manipulate or erase the minds of mortals, make barriers to hide presences and/or stop enemies from enter, etc.
- Gender-Blender Name: When Athena joins the school, she pretends to be a boy, but keeps her normal name and claims this to be the case.
- Geo Effects: A god is more powerful in terrain related to their domain. For example, even contained in a human body, Poseidon can defeat a fire god when surrounded by enough water.
- Giant Woman: Athena's normal form, due to her titan blood inherited from Zeus. It comes with Healing Factor, aside of the obvious Super-Strength even among gods.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Athena gets really annoyed when she learns that, while Adrian is no where near as popular with the ladies as Poseidon was, even with the curse, he was able to keep one female friend.
- Guilt Complex: Ever since an incident that almost killed a close friend of his and left her in a coma, Adrian has blamed everything bad that happens around him on himself.
- Half Identical Twin: Downplayed. Apollo's beloved sister, Artemis. They aren't identical but are still mentioned as twins.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Being the goddess of sexual love and beauty, this is a given for Aphrodite. There are countless men who want to sleep with her.
- Healing Hands: One of Apollo's powers as the god of medicine.
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: Athena denies any romantic interest in Adrian and gets agitated when questioned on it.
- Heroic Lineage: The name of Nike's mother, Styx, became a binding oath for the gods.
- The High Queen: Crossed with Iron Lady. As one of Olympus' rulers and commanders, Hera tries to lead others in the battlefront and council with the best of her ability. She also insists her siblings to make efforts in their roles.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Ironically enough happens to two of Artemis's servants. Artemis assigns them to kill the reincarnation of Poseidon, and they decide to chase and toy with him for fun. But just as they are about to deal a killing blow, the guardian of water takes over and completely turns the tables on them.
- Hydra Problem: For every poisoning serpent's head someone cut off, two more grew in its place. Obviously, this made it extremely difficult for most warriors to deal with. However, Poseidon killed it by completely destroying at once in a direct point, not giving it the time or resources to come back.
- Inhumanly Beautiful Race: Nymphs are attractive nature spirits who act as frequent companions of gods. Many find themselves getting the wrong sort of attention and becoming victims of rape by male deities, monsters like satyrs (AKA goat-like Beast Men), or humans.
- Irony: According to Poseidon and Hermes, Hera is very worried by Ares' actions as a Blood Knight... Yet the war god's open aggression might be result of his mother's own passive aggression.
- I Was Just Passing Through: Poseidon is originally fine with his current incarnation, Adrian dying, but directly intervenes when Athena is brought to the brink of death and brings her to her servant, Iolo, for healing. When he is asked why he saved his Arch-Enemy, he denies doing so on purpose and insists he was just preserving his current incarnation since The Underworld, the place he spends between incarnations, is so boring.
- Jerkass Gods: Zeus, Ares, Aphrodite, and Artemis are as petty and cruel as they are in mythology. Athena, Poseidon, and Apollo are surprisingly sympathetic compared to their mythological counterparts, but they've had their moments too.
- Just Toying with Them: Artemis's servants could have easily killed Adrian the instant they banished him to the shadow world, but give him the chance to run instead while they hunt him since it would be more fun that way. But just as they are about to seal the deal, the guardian of water takes over Adrian's body and pays back the favor.
- Kids Are Cruel:
- Adrian's curse keeps him from making friends by ensuring any normal human that does will suffer for it. Some aren't content to leave it at that and see his curse as a reason to have fun bullying and beating him up.
- Sybil's True Sight gives others such fear or ridicule that either isolate her or downright bully her. Thankfully, the gal is a Plucky Girl.
- Lazy Bum: Gaea is a legendary figure who created the world and divine races, but spends her time sleeping in the Forest of Dreams, protected by Artemis and her archer nymphs. Justified since the mother goddess already played her part at the story.
- Leave Me Alone!: Adrian tries to tell Athena to stay away from him before his bad luck rubs off.
- Legacy Character: As daughter of Metis, Athena is this to her late mother, who was the original wisdom goddess.
- Light 'em Up:
- As the god of the sun, Apollo can bring daylight, temporarily blind his enemies with brightness, or manipulate light itself into arrows.
- As goddess of the Moon, Artemis can bring the moonlight and control light itself in the form of arrows. She can share the ability with her nymphs, Eris and Iris.
- Loser Friend Puzzles Outsiders: Many people are puzzled as to why the talented and good looking Athena would befriend the luckless and near friendless loser that is Adrian.
- Make an Example of Them: According to Poseidon, if Zeus wants to get rid of someone, he puts the responsibility on their acquaintences to test their loyalty and warn everyone the outcome of what happens when someone revolts against him. Examples include the following ones.
- Ordered Poseidon, Metis' close friend who used to have one-sided feelings for the late goddess, to send newborn Athena to Tartarus. Both would have been punished if he didn't persuade his brother. See The Exile for more information.
- Not only cursed Poseidon, but ordered to have the latter's wife, children, and servants killed.
- Making a Splash: Crossed with Kill It with Water. Duh, Poseidon is the Lord of the Ocean! He is fond of using tidal waves and whirlpools, though also channels water in the form of giant horses and snakes. Even cursed and reduced to a human, as a fragment of Poseidon's soul, Adrian is still loved by water, which he cannot be harmed by it. Even Curse cannot mess things up for him with it. He can channel magic through water, though suffers from Power Incontinence if he attempts to do so without Poseidon's aid.
- Marriage of Convenience: Crossed with Awful Wedded Life. As the strongest gods of their generation, Zeus and Hera married to increase the number of war deities, even if it turned to be unnecessary. In any case, Hera's empathy and Zeus' selfishness don't clash well. Both consider each other either a necessary presence or threat for Olympus and don't hesitate to beat each other.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Apollo is is the Artsy Feminine Boy to Artemis' rough-and-tumble Masculine Girl.
- The Masquerade: The Greek Gods tend to keep a low profile in the mortal world these days and use Laser-Guided Amnesia on any mortals who see too much.
- Massively Numbered Siblings: Also a genderbender case of Mother of a Thousand Young. Adrian asks Athena if she has any siblings. With Zeus being Zeus, she gives an honest answer of hundreds by different mothers. Adrian quickly decides not to ask about her siblings anymore.
- Mental World: As god of medicine, Apollo can access to a person's mind, including that of a god. It resemblances a Dream Land, which changes to the person's will.
- Mercy Kill: Ares begs for one after getting stuck in the form of a powerless dog, preferring death over a life of embarrassment.
- Miko: Like her mother, Sybil is a human priestess and an archer from South Korea.
- More than Mind Control: As much as Tom would love to avenge his sister by torturing Adrian and his friends to death, he has the sense to know that this would get him into big trouble. Artemis's servants use magic to manipulate his memories in order to convince him that he is dreaming.
- Mr. Seahorse: Zeus to Athena, who cracked his head open and was born from there.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: Whatever Poseidon is really up to, he launched his rebellion against Zeus knowing full well that he would die.
- Nice Guy: Despite his doubts, and hesitation to act, and attempts of manipulation, Poseidon/Adrien just wants to protect his beloved ones and avoid innocent deaths as much as possible.
- Nice to the Waiter: Played Straight With and Subverted. Zeus freed the Cyclopes and Hecatonceries to avenge on the Titans. On the other hand, he cursed the titans who decided to abandon Cronus to ensure they wouldn't betray him later.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Subverted. After the pregnant Leto was forced to run for her life from the seemingly jealous Hera, who made all the lands of the world shun her, Poseidon protected the minor goddess until she could give birth to Apollo and Artemis. This act of kindness gave Poseidon an eternal debt from Apollo, which he would use centuries later to provide the (initially) exiled Athena a childhood home.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Athena enters battle with Ares expecting it to be another easy win and having the upper hand, like in their previous encounters. But between taking Adrien as a hostage as distraction for her and being well prepared for her Aegis with a recent mirror trick learned from Hephaestus, Ares finally manages to crush her.
- The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Moirai, more commonly known as "The Fates", are a trio of all-knowing sisters; Clotho (past), Lachesis (future), and Atropos (death). Their main purpose seems to be to just sit there and offer their services to those who despair of their destiny, if they are willing to accept it.
- Only Friend: The Curse isolates Adrian by ensuring any normal human who works with or befriends Adrian will fail and suffer for it. The only other friend Adrian ever had nearly died because of it and was left crippled, leaving Sibyl as the only person able to remain his friend. At the beginning, Athena manipulates them into severing their friendship so that she can become his new only friend and leave him broken when she betrays him. At the end, after their temporal separation and Athena's worries about the curse, the three ended up becoming each other's only friends at school.
- Only Sane Man: In Athena's inner circle, Iolo is pretty much the only one that lives up to the wisdom they are reputed for, with Athena regularly making bad moral decisions and Nike being even worse.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You:
- What drives Athena to protect Adrian from Ares, since she won't be able to get her own revenge against him if Ares breaks him first.
- Likewise, she opposes Tom Kang's agenda against Adrian for the same reason.
- On Patrol Montage: Athena saving Adrian from unlucky events throughout the school day.
- Other Me Annoys Me: Poseidon gets rather annoyed at how slow and naive his human incarnation's personality is.
- Pals with Jesus: Athena is known for taking a shine to mortal heroes who displayed both courage and smarts. A modern example is her eventual friendship with Sybil.
- Parental Neglect:
- As Zeus himself stated, he has way too many children for him to take care for. As Iolo noticed, however, his former boss is too self-centered to really care about them.
- Tom and Shawn Kang are from a wealthy family, but it is rumored that they aren't children from their presumed father, who certainly doesn't pay them any notice. While their family pays for their needs, they don't give them any attention and never visit Shawn despite her coma.
- Playing with Fire: One of Ares's specialties, which he likes to channel in form of attacking hounds, spread heat in his opponent's body, or move like a mini meteorite. He inherited the ability from Hera, whose flames are blue..
- Power Incontinence:
- As the reincarnation of Poseidon, Adrian has power over water, but he does not dare to use it for this reason, since he accidentally crippled and almost killed a close friend with it.
- In the case of nightmares, Zeus can lost control of his powers and cause damage while sleeping. It will require the help of major Olympians to stop it.
- Powers via Possession: Adrian can potentially channel magic thanks to a being that calls itself the guardian of water.
- Prongs of Poseidon: Poseidon is a prominent character in this work, so naturally his Weapon Of Choice is his trademark triton. It is powerful enough to crack the ground.
- The Prophecy: If Athena had been born a boy, she would have been destined to overthrow Zeus. And even though that wasn't the case, it is ultimately confirmed that she has a destiny of some sort and that Poseidon has been trying to protect her from.
- Really Gets Around: As in mythology, Zeus and Poseidon have slept with many women.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Ares, the Blood Knight War God, has red eyes.
- Reincarnation: Adrian is the latest reincarnation of Poseidon, who is doomed to reincarnate endlessly as an unlucky human.
- Revenge by Proxy:
- Since she couldn't attack Zeus directly, Hera didn't let Leto give birth to Apollo and Artemis on land. Thankfully, Poseidon helped Leto, which in turn gained him the eternal gratitude of Apollo.
- Adrian is only a tiny fragment of Poseidon and Athena acknowledges that he barely counts as the man who scorned her, but since he's the only part of Poseidon she can reach, Athena plots revenge by becoming his Only Friend and backstabbing him at a key moment.
- Tom Kang blames Adrian for an incident that almost killed his sister and has left her in a coma ever since. He decides that it won't be much fun to go against Adrian directly and realizes that he will feel guiltier if he goes after Athena instead.
- The Rival:
- Athena and Ares since the Trojan War. Their rivalry continues to this day, but is mostly one-sided for his part.
- Poseidon had a notable rivalry with Zeus and Athena during his rebellion. Ironically, he helped his brother during the Titantomachia and might be deeply in love with his niece... It is complicated.
- Scrap Heap Hero: When Adrian wants to help protect Athena from Ares, Poseidon reminds him of the reason he gave up on helping anyone in the first place; His curse, which guarantees any attempt to help others will only make things worse and once seemingly ruined the life of the few friends he ever had. But when the situation gets really desperate, Poseidon admits that there is one exception to the curse. That he can successfully protect Athena by Making a Splash.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Tom Kang comes from a wealthy family and is widely rumored to have powerful connections since he usually gets off lightly despite regularly beating people up and breaking things.
- Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Poseidon's godly power and original personality still exist, but are largely trapped in a human body with only the weak tiny fragment of him that is Adrian able to interact with the world. However, a human body isn't normally even enough to contain a god's soul, and was only made possible by Zeus's enormous power. As such, when the situation gets really desperate, Poseidon manages to temporarily overload it. If it happens too many times, the body (and soul) might get destroyed.
- Seers: As goddesses of fate, Lachesis and Atropos can see the future.
- Shear Menace: The Fates' life thread-cutting shears of destiny are the Trope Maker. The threads can be a restraining weapon if needed. Just ask Poseidon.
- Shipper on Deck: And not necessarily in a good way. Many of the couples Aphrodite arranged usually end up in tragedy, one of the biggest examples being (the already married) Helena of Sparta and Prince Paris, which began the Trojan War.
- Ship Tease: Between Adrian and Athena, which is a given, and Sibyl and Athena which never went anywhere. There is also ship tease between Sibyl and Adrian albeit to a much lesser extent. While Sibyl does act more like a Team Mom to Adrian, there are numerous occasions where it is hinted that Sibyl's relationship with Adrian goes even deeper than just being friends.
- Shock and Awe: In particular, the Bolt of Divine Retribution is Zeus' iconic weapon. Athena is the only of his children who inherited the ability. They also can imbue the element in spears or use it to move like mini meteorites.
- Sleeps with Everyone but You: Poseidon slept with many women, but refused to do so with Athena.
- Spontaneous Generation: Aphrodite was accidently born from the late Ouranos' genitals.
- Stalker without a Crush:
- Ares has no romantic interest in Athena, but being a Blood Knight, he admires her strength and really enjoys stalking and fighting her.
- When Adrian pushes Athena away due to Poseidon's warnings, Athena decides she should focus on Adrian personally instead of Poseidon and learn more about him to find a weakness. Towards this end, she starts following around his Only Friend, Sibyl.
- Stealth Mentor: Ultimately confirmed to be the real reason Poseidon betrayed Athena and became her Arch-Enemy.
- Super Serum: Nectar, the drink of the gods, can imbue humans with Super-Strength. It is normally temporary, but there is implied to be a chance of getting new abilities that go beyond those of normal humans.
- Super-Strength: Sibyl acquires it after drinking Nectar, the drink of the gods, becoming strong enough to punch a hole in a concrete wall.
- Swirlie: A variant with a sink instead of a toilet, but just as effective.
- Taken for Granite: Athena's Iconic Item, Aegis, is a giant shield imbued with the eyes of Medusa, which turn her enemies into stone if they merely looking at it.
- Team Mom:
- In short, Sybil's relationship with Adrien.
- Nike and Iolo share the role among Athena's household.
- There Are No Coincidences: Iolo starts realizing that way too many impossible coincidences keep interfering with Athena's revenge and starts to suspect that something deep and sinister is up.
- The Trickster: As the god of thieves and commerce, Hermes deceives, cheats, steals, and whatnot since he was a baby.
- True Sight: Thanks to her priestess powers, Sibyl can see ghosts and true divine forms.
- The Unfettered: Iolo. The guy insults Ares in slippers, casually to talks Apollo, is the only divine servant who can say no to their (albeit benevolent) boss, and doesn't even hesitate to give "The Reason You Suck" Speech es to Zeus.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: On Adrian's side, while he feels attracted to her when he perceives her as a girl, she has mostly left him convinced that she's a boy. It is implied in flashbacks and by their Red String of Fate that Poseidon might love her romantically, but pushes her away as part of his rebellion's cover and his own possible role in her prophecy. For her part, Athena's feelings are even more complicated since she once had a crush on his other self before they became Arch-Enemies and doesn't quite acknowledge that she still does have a crush on him even now. However, she openly states to every ally of hers that she wants to resolve the "unfairness" of his curse and his true intentions.
- Unstoppable Mailman: Hermes is the Messenger of the Gods, too curious to resist any challenge, and too smart to be thwarted. He managed to guide Ares to Athena's hidden vacation, let Aphrodite to The Fates, and keep his boss Zeus well-informed of current events.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: One of the powers the gods and divine servants possess.
- Poseidon once assumed the form of Athena's mother, Metis, to show it to her, and she later learned it herself to hide her gigantic nature as a Titan. Zeus uses a similar yet inverted trick to hide his true form.
- Ares transforms into a hound at will. Likewise, divine servants Eris and Iris transform into cats.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl. Crossed with The Chosen One. Many think Athena should resent Zeus for killing her mother to try to kill her and exiling her, but in fact, winning her father's approval is actually very important to her. However, the Fates have a very special plan for Athena, and despite being a girl with Undying Loyalty to Zeus, there are fears that she may yet be destined to overthrow him.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Athena is still using a female form, but wears a male school uniform and pretends to be a boy because she greatly prefers the boys' uniform.
- Woman Scorned: Athena, after being rejected and betrayed by Poseidon. A very tragic element to the plot, after learning his true intentions
- Worf Had the Flu: Athena makes a bet with Apollo that requires her to not use any magic. A magic infused Tom Kang would normally pose no threat to her whatsoever, but due to her bet, she is only left with superhuman strength, causing her severe problems. However, Apolo broke bet upon witnessing the event and Athena not only defeated Kang but also stopped the guardian of water's attacks by temporarily imprisoning him.
- Yaoi Fangirl: At first, the girls drool over the talented and good-looking Athena, who is pretending to be a man. But when they start urging her to pick a girl to sit next to, "he" asserts that "he" likes Adrian and continues to show a very strong interest in him, resulting in them finding a new reason to be excited.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Even the gods cannot defy it. The Fates say that no matter what you do in reaction to a prophecy, it will still come true. It is, however, possible to sway a prophecy.
