The Mark Of Athena

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2012

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Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “Annabeth”

Daughter of Athena, Annabeth paces nervously along the deck of the Argo II, “a magical Greek trireme,” as it flies into Camp Jupiter (7). On board with her are son of Hephaestus Leo, who built the ship, daughter of Aphrodite Piper, who will be using her mother’s gift of “charmspeak” to disarm the Romans, and Piper’s boyfriend Jason, a son of Jupiter and former praetor of the Roman camp. Also accompanying the group is its satyr chaperone, Coach Gleeson Hedge, who is overenthusiastic and prone to aggression.

Feeling a shiver, Annabeth thinks she hears someone laughing, but no one is there (10). As the Roman camp comes into view, Annabeth sees evidence of a recent battle against monsters. Armed demigods emerge from the gates. Annabeth hopes to see her boyfriend Percy among them but instead hears an explosion. A statue, Terminus, the god of boundaries who protects New Rome, has appeared on the ship to order them not to bring weapons into the city. Piper tries to charmspeak him, but he is immune. When Annabeth interrupts to mediate, Terminus condescendingly refers to Athena as “Minerva’s Greek form” (13). He insists the ship cannot land, since it is a weapon, and weapons cannot go beyond the Pomerian Line.

Annabeth spots Percy, “at ease, so happy,” and wearing a praetor’s purple cloak, and orders Leo to stop the ship (14). She compromises with Terminus to allow the ship to hover above the city with all their weapons on board, and he allows the Greek demigods to disembark.

Annabeth again believes she hears laughing.

Chapter 2 Summary: “Annabeth”

Annabeth grudgingly admires the city. Unlike Camp Half-Blood, which is exclusively populated by demigods and counselors, the Roman camp is a piece of a larger city, New Rome. Multigenerational families line the street to see the Greek demigods. Annabeth sees members of Camp Half-Blood’s initial scouting party: a Cyclops called Tyson and Mrs. O’Leary, Percy’s hellhound. She spots the leader of the Roman camp, Reyna, and her mix of courage and worry reminds Annabeth of herself. The girls size each other up, then Annabeth sees Percy, her boyfriend who mysteriously disappeared four months into their relationship. They run into each other’s arms and kiss, then Annabeth flips him over, slams him to the ground, and warns him never to leave her again. He laughs, telling her that he missed her, too.

Jason introduces the Greek demigods to Reyna, who calls her centurions, Frank and Hazel, to come forward. Annabeth notices that they seem close to Percy. Hazel seems to be staring in the direction of Piper and Leo, which puzzles Annabeth. Octavian, the camp augur, objects to allowing the Greeks into camp, but Reyna says that the group will eat together in the forum. She instructs Octavian to “burn an offering” of thanks for Jason’s safe return (19).

Annabeth feels a familiar sense of foreboding.

Chapter 3 Summary: “Annabeth”

The Greek and Roman demigods share a feast. Reyna makes “a toast to friendship,” and the campers begin telling their stories (21). Jason explains the quest he went on with Piper and Leo to rescue Hera/Juno from the giants. The giants planned to pin the blame on the Greeks to start a war between the camps. Their leader Porphyrion has retreated to Greece to wake Gaea and destroy the gods.

Percy shares how he woke up in the Wolf House in northern California with no memory, eventually joining forces with Frank and Hazel. They traveled to Alaska, where they defeated Alcyoneus the giant, freed Thanatos the death god, and recovered the Roman camp’s golden eagle standard.

Octavian points out that, with Jason back, the camp now has an extra praetor. Annabeth turns the discussion to the Great Prophecy that concerns seven half-bloods. She notes that it indicates the two camps will have to work together. Percy believes they must travel first to Rome, then Greece. They must close the Doors of Death to stop monsters from returning to the world of the living.

Reyna cautions Percy that traveling to the gods’ birthplace and the monsters’ ancestral home will be more dangerous than anything they have encountered. Rome is off limits to demigods, but Leo, Jason, and Annabeth agree that the quest is essential to stop Gaea from waking. Since the prophecy indicates that the seven half-bloods must represent both camps, Annabeth recommends herself, Jason, Piper, and Leo, and Percy volunteers himself, Frank, and Hazel. Tyson approaches with his friend Ella, a harpy with knowledge of prophecies. She recites one that resonates with a command Annabeth received from her mother, to “Follow the Mark of Athena. Avenge me” (27, italics in original).

Frank, Hazel, and Percy try to downplay it, making Annabeth realize they are hiding something, but she plays along when Percy shoots her a pleading glance.

To mollify Octavian, who continues to be suspicious, Leo offers to give him a tour of the Argo. Annabeth sees “a cruel light in [Leo’s] eyes” that disappears as quickly as it appears (29). Reyna is annoyed when Jason wants to show Piper around and asks to speak alone with Annabeth.

Chapter 4 Summary: “Annabeth”

Annabeth grudgingly admires New Rome as she and Reyna stroll through the city, Reyna’s gold and silver automaton greyhounds, Aurum and Argentum at her side. Reyna explains that, for the Romans, Minerva is a maiden goddess of crafts, but not a war goddess and not a leader. The idea that she would have children is shocking to Romans. Reyna’s own mother is Bellona, a Roman war goddess who has no Greek equivalent. Rome, Reyna points out, conquered Greece and any other neighbors who were deemed threatening. It is not in Rome’s nature to cooperate. Reyna is concerned that Juno/Hera’s plan may be flawed. Annabeth shares that she does not trust the goddess but believes in her friends and their ability to cooperate with the Roman demigods.

Reyna reveals that she knows Ella spoke a prophecy because she has heard part of it before. Annabeth realizes that she and Reyna have met. Reyna is the sister of Hylla, queen of the Amazons, and once served as a handmaiden of Circe. When Reyna was on Circe’s island, a demigod washed up on shore claiming to have been on a quest to find the “Mark of Athena” (37). She believes it is related to a legend about the source of Greek and Roman conflict that revolves around Athena.

An explosion interrupts their conversation. The Argo is attacking Rome. Reyna and Annabeth run toward the chaos. Octavian says that Leo is behind the assault. Annabeth cannot believe it but realizes that she will not be able to figure it out with the enraged Romans. Gathering her friends, she says they must leave. Hazel and Frank agree to join them. Hazel and her magical horse Arion cause a distraction so the others can get to the ship. On board, Annabeth finds Leo “calmly reloading the ballista” and robotically repeating, “Destroy them all” (41). Percy knocks him out, and Annabeth takes control of the ship, launching it into the sky.

Chapters 1-4 Analysis

Annabeth’s opening chapters provide a refresher of the characters, their divine parents, and their adventures from the first two books in the series. Seeing the characters through the eyes of Annabeth makes this exposition seamless, since she is on her first visit to New Rome and can present the information from a fresh perspective. Riordan will continue to sprinkle details from previous books throughout the novel, creating a network of related stories that mirrors the interconnection of stories in Greek and Roman mythologies. Similarly, the difference between New Rome and Camp Half-Blood exemplifies a difference between the historical Roman and Greek worlds. Rome was a vast, centrally organized empire while the classical Greek world was a collection of independent city-states that resisted centralization.

Annabeth’s point of view bookends the novel, which connects to its central conflict: the centrality of Athena in the dispute between the Greeks and Romans. In the series’ larger narrative arc, stopping Gaea from waking and destroying the gods, the demigods must find a way to heal the rift between the Greeks and Romans. As the plot unfolds, it becomes clear that one way to achieve this is to recover the Athena Parthenos, a cult statue that once graced the Parthenon on Athens’ Acropolis but was supposedly stolen by the Romans when they sacked the city during their conquest of the Greek-speaking world. If the demigods can recover the statue, it can serve as a gesture of reconciliation from the Romans to the Greeks.

Reyna and Annabeth effectively act as counterparts that represent the two camps. Both are daughters of war goddesses with unique Roman and Greek aspects. In Greek myth, Athena is the goddess of cunning, and her various domains represent aspects that feature ingenuity and design: weaving and other handicrafts, tactical warfare, and strategic thinking. She was the favorite child of Zeus, whom he preferred over his son Ares, a war god associated with excess and bloodlust. Bellona was a Roman war goddess who did not have a counterpart in Greek mythology, and her qualities are closer to Ares’s than to Athena’s.

Annabeth’s hostility for New Rome and the Roman demigods reflects her bond with her mother and the resentment she feels on her behalf. It effectively acts as a microcosm of the larger conflict. Percy’s ease with and connection to the Roman camp riles Annabeth, whose competitive feelings towards the Romans persist in the series’ first few books. Percy retains his Greek character, however. This becomes especially evident when Jason’s return leads to the Romans having an extra praetor: Percy breezily offers to step down, shocking Octavian, who finds it offensive that a leader who be so cavalier about the role.

Percy and Annabeth’s reunion could be said to foreshadow the cliffhanger on which the novel ends. Annabeth orders Percy never to leave her again at the beginning of the book. At the end, she will urge him to let her fall and save himself, but he will refuse to do so. The last two lines of the prophecy Ella recites pertain specifically to Annabeth and the quest to recover the Athena Parthenos: “Twins snuff out the angel’s breath, Who holds the key to endless death. Giants’ bane stands gold and pale, Won through pain from a woven jail” (27, italics in original).

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