The Mark Of Athena

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2012

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

Character Analysis

Annabeth

Annabeth is the daughter of Greek goddess Athena and Frank Chase, a professor of military history. At the beginning of the novel, she is about to land in New Rome and see her boyfriend Percy for the first time in year. Athena’s favorite child, Annabeth is interested in architecture and an effective strategic thinker. She feels resentful of New Rome because she associates it with Percy being taken away from her. At the same time, she is drawn to its beauty and organization. As someone who loves architecture and building, she cannot help but appreciate it. This experience exemplifies what the demigods on both sides of the Greek/Roman conflict need to do: learn to respect each other’s gifts so that they can overcome their animosity and work together to defeat Gaea.

In addition to the quest associated with Prophecy of Seven, Annabeth also has her own quest in the novel that she must undertake alone. Before the events in The Mark of Athena, Annabeth had a puzzling and distressing meeting with her mother in which Athena demanded that her daughter avenge her. Annabeth found Athena’s desire for vengeance at odds with her domains of wisdom, prudence, and strategic thinking. Athena sounded more like Ares, the war god associated with rage and bloodlust. Gradually, as she begins to collect clues to the meaning of the Mark of Athena that her mother has asked her to follow, Annabeth realizes that the way to help heal her mother, along with the other gods, is to find the statue and return it to the Greeks, a symbolic act which would show Roman acknowledgement of Greek power and independence.

Annabeth’s quest is one that she must undertake alone, and she draws on cunning and courage to pass each hurdle she faces, eventually finding the statue and tricking Arachne, the guard, into weaving her own prison. True to Greek heroes, however, Annabeth makes a tragic mistake. After she has imprisoned Arachne, she cannot contain her emotions of anger and fear and gloats to Arachne that Athena’s statue will grace the halls of Olympus. Annabeth’s provocation leads to Arachne destroying the chamber they are in, leaving both Annabeth and Percy to drop into Tartarus, setting up their quest in the following book in the series.

Leo

Leo is the son of Greek god Hephaestus and Esperanza Valdez, a mechanic. Leo lost his mother in a fire and was watched over by Hera during his life. At Camp Half-Blood, he distinguished himself as a gifted creator, having built the warship the demigods ride into Camp Jupiter, across the Atlantic, and through the Mediterranean. Having been bullied while growing up, Leo uses humor to diffuse tension. On the quest, Leo suffers from feelings of alienation. In part, this is due to his having fired on Camp Jupiter, provoking a war between the Greeks and Romans just when they most need to work together to defeat Gaea. Leo also feels isolated on the quest because he is the only demigod who does not have a romantic partner.

Though Leo feels slightly better when he learns that possessing spirits, eidolons, caused him to attack Camp Jupiter, he receives confirmation for his fears during his meeting with Nemesis. The goddess of revenge warns him that “will always be the outsider” among his friends (59). Despite this, Leo experiences a strange connection with Hazel, a Roman demigod who volunteers to join the team of seven demigods needed for the quest to Rome. The connection causes conflict with Frank, another Roman demigod on the quest and Hazel’s boyfriend. When Hazel and Leo figure out that he is the great-grandson of her childhood friend Sammy, tension with Frank eases, and Leo is able to develop empathy and friendship, building bonds between Greeks and Romans.

Nemesis’s second warning to Leo was that he would “face a problem [he] cannot solve,” and the only way through this problem would be Nemesis’s help via a fortune cookie that he can open when the problem arises (59). Her help will require a sacrifice, but this sacrifice will also be necessary for success. Though Leo ends up feeling guilty for using Nemesis’s fortune cookie, events in future books will prove that the sacrifice had to be made, something Leo struggles to reconcile himself with.

Piper

Piper is a daughter of Greek goddess Aphrodite and American movie star Tristan Mclean. When she first found out that she was the daughter of the love goddess, Piper felt embarrassed, thinking that her mother was only concerned with attraction, romance, and gossip. Her boyfriend, Jason, is a Roman demigod who Piper sometimes struggles to interpret, but their relationship strengthens as each realizes the ways that their gifts complement and supplement each other. In The Mark of Athena, Piper learns to embrace her divine gifts for conciliation and generation.

When the Argo arrives at the Pillars of Hercules, Piper and Jason approach Hercules, who guards the straits into the Mediterranean. When he sets the demigods what he believes to be an impossible quest against the Achelous, it is Piper who charms and disarms the river god, cutting off his horn and then refusing to turn it over to Hercules, who only wants it to torment and humiliate Achelous. With Piper having secured the horn, Jason joins forces with Percy to get the Argo past Hercules, which would not have been possible without Piper’s gifts.

The horn of the river god becomes a horn of plenty, a cornucopia from which Piper extracts whatever the occasion demands, whether it is a birthday cake for Jason or a stream of clean water to detoxify an underground nymphaeum and heal the zombie nymphs who live in it. Piper’s experiences in The Mark of Athena demonstrate a heroism grounded in creation, reconciliation, and sacrifice.

Percy

Percy is the son of the Greek god Poseidon and Sally Jackson. When The Mark of Athena begins, Percy is at Camp Jupiter, having been kidnapped and swapped with Jason at the beginning of the Heroes of Olympus series. The plot was concocted by Hera, who wants to reconcile the Greek and Roman demigods so that they can help defeat Gaea and save the Olympians. Percy has been successful at Camp Jupiter, rising to praetor, an official Roman position below consul. One of his motives for going on the quest is that reconciling the camps will open him and Annabeth up to possibilities for a life that is not possible at Camp Half-Blood, which functions solely as a haven for Greek demigods. He and Annabeth could live a full life as demigods in New Rome if they can succeed at their quests.

When Jason, who was also a praetor, returns with the Greeks at the beginning of the novel, Percy is happy to step aside, but he does feel competitive with Jason. After the two are possessed by eidolons and try to kill each other, they argue over who would have won that battle if they had not been knocked out. As the boys work together to stave off one threat after another, Percy realizes the key to their long-term success is pooling their power. With this strategy, they defeat the giants at the end of the novel, with Bacchus landing the necessary final blow.

When Percy and Annabeth are reunited at the beginning of the book, she physically overpowers him, ordering him never to leave her again. The Roman demigods are shocked by this display, but Percy laughs. Annabeth is his equal and partner. At the end of the novel, as Annabeth clings to a ledge over Tartarus, Percy understands that he will not be able to pull her up and chooses to fall with her, thus fulfilling his fidelity to her command at the novel’s beginning.

Related Titles

By Rick Riordan

Study Guide

Daughter of the Deep