The Blood of Olympus

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2014

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Chapters 37-40Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 37 Summary: “Reyna”

Approaching Camp Half-Blood, Reyna, Nico, and Hedge spot the Romans, their siege weapons, and their monster allies, who vastly outnumber the Romans. Their winged horses land on the helipad of a mortal ship moored off Camp Half-Blood. Reyna thanks Pegasus, who must depart immediately, and through Hedge, the immortal horse tells Reyna that he came for her, moved by her compassion for Scipio. Reyna is surprised to see a black motorboat bearing the legend SPQR rushing toward them since the Romans don’t have a navy. She recognizes Michael Kahale, whom Octavian has sent to arrest her and confiscate the Athena Parthenos. Hoping that she can reason with Michael, she invites him aboard but warns Hedge and Nico to be ready to fight.

Michael, Leila (a daughter of Ceres), and Dakota (a son of Bacchus) half-heartedly try to convince Reyna to come peacefully. Dakota keeps winking at her. Suddenly, they hear Octavian’s voice demanding both drop their weapons. Reyna fears a trick but follows her instinct to obey. Tyson the Cyclops and his girlfriend Ella, the prophetic harpy, climb aboard. Tyson knocks out Michael and swoops Reyna, Nico, and Hedge into his arms.

Chapter 38 Summary: “Reyna”

Tyson confronts Dakota and Leila, who insist that they planned to switch sides. The legion isn’t as united as Michael suggested, and not everyone trusts Octavian’s alleged allies. Reyna sends Hedge back to Camp Half-Blood with Tyson and Ella, instructing him to convey the message that Reyna will return the Athena Parthenos as a gift from Rome to Greece. She sends Nico with Dakota and Leila to create a distraction in the Roman camp that will delay their attack—and to sabotage the Romans’ onagers. Dakota worries that the statue could still be destroyed, but Reyna thinks that will be difficult to do once it’s back in the Greeks’ possession. The statue hasn’t yet shown its power.

They put Michael in the speedboat, and Nico and Reyna share a warm moment of mutual respect before Reyna is left alone on the ship with the pegasi and the Athena Parthenos. She recalls Orion’s taunt that she “failed in her duties” (278) and wonders if she did the right thing given that leaving the Romans exposed them to Octavian’s schemes and manipulations. The horse Blackjack comforts her, and she prays to Bellona, the mother she never met. Suddenly, a dark shape appears on the horizon, and an arrow hits Blackjack’s flank. A second arrow lands between her feet, a countdown timer attached.

Chapter 39 Summary: “Reyna”

Orion has found her, though he looks worse for wear after his battle with the Hunters. He escaped into the sea to avoid them, and they’re still alive. As the minutes to detonation wind down, Orion taunts Reyna, who concentrates on how to protect Blackjack and the other horses. Orion taunts her that her prayer to her mother has gone unanswered, but Reyna disagrees. Her mother has given her an opportunity to prove herself. She pulls out her knife, telling Orion that Bellona will help her kill him. She throws the knife into his chest and then flings her cloak over the explosive arrow, falling on it to absorb the explosion—but it never comes. The Athena Parthenos has transformed Reyna’s cloak into her own aegis. Orion is still alive, but Reyna feels her mother’s strength surge through her and attacks him. Bellona and another goddess, Athena, help Reyna kill Orion.

Chapter 40 Summary: “Reyna”

Back on the ship, she treats and bandages Blackjack’s wound and feeds him unicorn draught. As the sun comes up, Reyna sees no signs of battle and momentarily wonders if the Romans changed their plans, but then orange streaks of fire climb into the sky. The battle has begun.

Chapters 37-40 Analysis

In these chapters, Reyna experiences a moment of personal insight and healing when she shifts her interpretation of the events around her. Her fears of being a bad leader, letting down the Romans under her charge, and failing as a daughter of Bellona follow on the heels of her traumatic memory of failing her family. Orion has caught up with her. The success of her quest to return the Athena Parthenos feels in danger. Similar to Jason’s experience in the underwater ruins of Poseidon’s old palace, Reyna’s perspective shifts with the immediate danger to the horses in her presence and her desire to live up to the honor Lord Pegasus has shown her. Everything but the present moment recedes, and she can narrow her focus. Thus, when Orion taunts her that Bellona hasn’t answered her prayer, Reyna sees her experience from a new angle—as an opportunity. She has matured such that she begins to use her experiences to be a better example and bring others together constructively, highlighting the theme The Makings of a Good Leader.

In both Greek and Roman mythological texts, the will of gods and mortals converge, creating outcomes through a dynamic between them. Immortals work their will through mortal bodies, but the mortals themselves must possess certain characteristics that provoke divine connection. This can serve both productive and destructive ends. Aphrodite works through Helen and Paris to bring about conflict between Achaeans and Trojans in Homer’s The Iliad. Venus has Dido possessed by love so that she’ll fall in love with and help Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid. Similarly, here, two war goddesses, one Greek and one Roman, work together through Reyna to destroy Orion—but only after Reyna is willing to sacrifice herself. Athena lends her aegis to protect Reyna from the exploding arrow, and Bellona’s power surges through Reyna to provide the fatal blow to Orion.

In Roman mythology, Athena is associated with Minerva, yet Riordan chose Bellona as Reyna’s divine parent and patron. The choice perhaps reflects how the Romans came to see Minerva over time, as less associated with protecting the city and more with protecting the home and family. Their powerful war goddess was Bellona, arguably a more fitting parallel to what Athena signified for the Greeks. A Roman duality around Bellona is that her temple was a site for both declaring war and signing peace treaties, reflecting a well-known phrase of fourth-century Roman writer Vegetius: “If you want peace, prepare for war.”

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By Rick Riordan

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