The Blood of Olympus

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2014

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Chapters 41-44Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 41 Summary: “Piper”

The demigods arrive in Athens, and Piper is on guard duty, while the others prepare their weapons. The part man, part snake (gemini) founder and first king of Athens, Kekrops, arrives with two attendants and asks for permission to board. The demigods suspect a trap but allow him aboard. Kekrops warns them that all roads to the Acropolis are guarded, and they’ll be destroyed if they attempt to travel aboveground. He offers them safe passage through his underground lair but can guarantee safety only for three. Jason distrusts Kekrops when he insists that the demigods split up. Percy questions why Gaea’s forces would destroy them when she needs the demigods to come to the Parthenon for her ceremony.

Annabeth and Piper believe that Kekrops is hiding something. Piper remembers her father telling her that they chose her name because her grandfather believed that she’d have a powerful voice, even learning “the song of the snakes” (291, italics in original). She begins singing one of her father’s favorite songs, which puts Kekrops into a trance. He reveals his intention to lure them into the tunnels and destroy them, on Gaea’s orders. Although he chose Athena over Poseidon as the city’s patron, she betrayed his people, forcing them underground. Spilling the demigods’ blood under the Parthenon will bring Gaea back. Everything else he told the demigods about the roads to the Acropolis being guarded is true. Since Piper’s music keeps Kekrops under control, the demigods decide to risk sending Piper, Annabeth, and Percy with him to disable the weapons of Gaea’s forces, enabling the others to join them.

Chapter 42 Summary: “Piper”

Kekrops leads Piper, Annabeth, and Percy through the underground tunnels while Piper sings. They hear Gaea’s voice echoing through the stone. When they arrive at the entrance to the Acropolis, Kekrops has them wait, saying that he’ll scout the territory. Piper realizes that he plans to alert the giants and destroy the demigods. Using charmspeak and song, she convinces him that Gaea will destroy all of Athens, including his people, and he agrees not to betray her.

While they wait, Piper thinks about her family, reflecting on how the pain and struggle of the last few months also forged the bonds she shares with Hazel and Annabeth and helped her find her courage. Kekrops returns alone, telling them that the way is clear. They emerge at the spot where Poseidon struck the earth with his trident, under the Erechtheion, a temple dedicated to Poseidon and Athena. Percy pulls Annabeth into a long kiss, declaring the rivalry between Poseidon and Athena over.

Frank arrives in the guise of a swarm of bees. Hazel’s mist transforms Percy, Annabeth, and Piper into giant, six-armed Earthborn. They hear chanting, indicating that the ceremony to awaken Gaea has begun. Piper heads toward the Parthenon, killing monsters and sabotaging catapults and siege weapons to enable the Argo II to approach. The chanting suddenly stops, and a cheer erupts. Princess Periboia has captured Annabeth, and Enceladus has Percy. King Porphyrion welcomes “the blood of Olympus to raise the Earth Mother” (302).

Chapter 43 Summary: “Piper”

Porphyrion calls for Thoon to slay Annabeth with his cleaver, but Piper attacks, slicing off Thoon’s hand. Piper’s small size is an advantage as she dodges and weaves through the enormous giants, stabbing all she can. She uses charmspeak to stop Periboia from killing Annabeth, but her blade strikes Annabeth’s thigh, and Annabeth’s blood soaks into the earth. Piper plunges her sword into Periboia and stands protectively over Annabeth, who has lost her strength. Porphyrion screams at the giants to remember that the demigods can’t kill them, and they start closing in. At that moment, the Argo II arrives, and Jason leaps into the fray.

Chapter 44 Summary: “Piper”

The demigods hold off the giants for a few minutes, but their greater strength and numbers eventually wear the demigods down. Whatever wounds the demigods inflict, the giants can heal by drawing on Gaea’s increasing strength, and they can’t be killed without the gods’ help. Enceladus throws a fiery spear at the Argo II, and an explosion rocks the ship. It begins sinking. A drop of blood from Percy’s nose drips onto the stones below, and the Acropolis trembles as Gaea wakes up.

Chapters 41-44 Analysis

The action builds to its climax in these chapters, with the demigods finally arriving at the moment that the quest has been building toward: the ceremony to wake Gaea. Among her allies is Kekrops, the original founder of Athens. In Greek mythology, Kekrops was chosen to judge the competition between Athena and Poseidon for patronage of Athens. His grievance against Athena mirrors that of other divinities in the novel: He doesn’t feel that he has been sufficiently respected. Although he chose Athena, she eventually cast him aside in favor of others. Throughout the series and within the novel, Riordan develops this as a pattern with variations: Whether divine or mortal, those who don’t feel respected can go from being friends to being opponents. Although the demigods repeatedly warn Kekrops that Gaea won’t keep her word, it isn’t enough to sway him. His resentment is too deep. Only with Piper’s charmspeak and song does he let the demigods pass safely through to the Acropolis.

Just as Frank, from early in the series, worked to reconcile his Chinese and Roman cultures and gifts, Piper has been learning to merge her Cherokee and Greek heritages. Along the way, she found points of connection that made her stronger and more effective in her role among the demigods, emphasizing two themes: Self-Acceptance and Healing, and The Makings of a Good Leader. Although Khione dismissed Piper as useless in The House of Hades, her gift for persuasion is what ultimately enables the quest to progress, as it did with Asclepius in Epidaurus and with the Ares statue in Sparta.

After passing through the territory of Kekrops, the demigods find themselves at the spot that Poseidon struck with his trident—a reference to the myth that during his competition with Athena, Poseidon struck a rock and created a saltwater spring, his gift to the city. The ancient antagonism between Poseidon and Athena runs through both the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and The Heroes of Olympus series. Annabeth and Percy’s devotion to one another flourishes despite the objections of their divine parents, Athena in particular. Although the novel’s main antagonist is Gaea, it remains aware of other rifts that must be healed. Percy and Annabeth’s kiss at the spot where Athena defeated Poseidon symbolizes an era of reconciliation moving forward, reflecting the theme Reconciling With and Understanding Others.

Related Titles

By Rick Riordan

Study Guide

Daughter of the Deep