71 pages • 2 hours read
Rick RiordanThe Lost Hero
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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BetaChapters 29-32Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 29 Summary
Leo and Piper have enough memory of the shopping mall to ask Piper where her father is imprisoned. Piper insists they find Aeolus first. Leo dreams, and speaks to his father, Hephaestus, who has built an illegal radio to communicate with demigods. He tells Leo that he has always watched him. He explains that gods and demigods need to work together, and that the giant being reborn is a child of Gaea and Ouranous, bred to take revenge on the gods for overthrowing the Titans. He affirms that Leo is special, and tells him, “‘Nothing lasts forever, not even the best machines. And everything can be reused’” (333).
Chapter 30 Summary
Leo wakes up to find himself and his friends hurtling through the air again. This time, they find themselves on a snowy lawn in Omaha. Festus is destroyed, and Leo realizes his father’s words were a warning and consolation. Leo cries, but is determined to finished his quest, “for his friends, for his mom, for his dragon” (338). Together, they approach a large white mansion.
Chapter 31 Summary
Leo deactivates several traps on the way to the front door. They find the house open. The house is empty, and the friends fall asleep on comfortable sofas. They wake up to find Coach Hedge attacking the furniture. They explain how they found him, and he tells them, “there are no accidents! Not on quests. This was meant to happen” (347). After the excitement dies down, they realize everything in the house is gold. A white-haired man enters the room, and calls for his son. Coach Hedge raises his club and shouts, “Die!” (348).
Chapter 32 Summary
The demigods restrain Coach Hedge as the man’s son, Lit, enters the room. As they try to work out a compromise, the white-haired man introduces himself as King Midas. Piper tries to confirm that he gave up the golden touch out of repentance after changing his daughter to gold. Midas laughs at the idea, and points out a statue of his daughter, Zoe. He turns Piper’s backpack to gold, and asserts that his power is the reason his “patron” brought him back to life (355). He tells his guests that they have a choice (as do all his guests, including the recent Artemis Hunters): to “join [his] collection, or die at the hands of Lityerses,” Midas’s son (357). He turns Piper and Leo to gold, but then Jason chooses battle. He defeats Lit, and calls down a thunderstorm. The rain begins to awaken Midas’s statues.
Chapters 29-32 Analysis
These chapters further explain both the gods’ whereabouts and the extent of chaos on the planet.
Leo has a bonding moment with Hephaestus, and learns that his father was never indifferent to him, only unsure of how to communicate with him. From Hephaestus, he learns that Zeus has asked the gods to cease contact with their children, explaining the silence from Mount Olympus as well as the lack of protection from hostile gods and forces. The encounter seems to help Leo be more vulnerable and open. When Festus breaks for the third and final time, Leo cries openly. His loss strengthens his resolve.
In most of the challenges the demigods have encountered, two are incapacitated (with the Cyclops, Piper and Jason; with Medea, Jason and Leo), and in the encounter with King Midas, the pattern continues: Piper and Leo are turned to gold, and Jason must save them. It’s significant that the most powerful of the three, Jason, is the last to save his friends; by this point, he has gained full knowledge of their capacities, which inspires him to further bravery and loyalty. The group’s interdependence grows. Now, Coach Hedge accompanies them, but he is little help in this battle.
In King Midas, the demigods encounter their second mortal foe (after Medea). It is clear now that the “patron” of these mortals may be someone more powerful than the giants, someone with the power to raise the dead from the distant past and encourage them to establish lives in North America. Piper’s knowledge of Greek mythology, gained during research for her father’s movies, is helpful to the group once again: she notes that running water can reverse Midas’s touch. This inspires Jason to call down rain and turn the many people he has made statues into an opposing army.
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