To what extent does American author Rick Riordan accurately portray the Greek gods in his series Percy Jackson and the Olympians as compared to the actual Greek myths and legends? How does Riordan characterize the gods and what effect does his portrayal of them have on the story? In the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, author Rick Riordan juxtaposes ancient Greek mythology with the modern world. The series tell the story of the title character, demigod Percy Jackson and his friends as they goes on quests to, quite literally, save the world. The Greek gods have an essential role in the series as they provide help and give advice to the demigods, and, more often than not, are the root of all problems. Riordan takes the personas of the gods from various myths and …show more content…
The only major difference between Poseidon in the series and in the myths is the physical appearance. This singular trait is one of the few that actually have an effect if changed; in the series, Poseidon does not look ‘majestic’ and has a more laidback and simple look and vibe. Throughout the series, Poseidon’s status as a god often causes the other characters to be intimidated by him; if he were to be described as majestic in the series, he would be more imposing than he already is. In addition, he is described as wearing modern clothes in the series; if he were to lose this quality and be dressed in ancient Greek clothing, Poseidon would become less relatable to the young adult audience and the series would lose some of its modernity. One of the major obstacles Percy struggles with is learning how to approach and impress Poseidon, his father. Being able to talk to Poseidon and get advice from him helps Percy complete his quests and resolve major issues which would be more difficult to accomplish if Poseidon were any less
My original thought when comparing Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief the movie and Classical mythology was that there would be many more references to the myth of Perceus than any other myth throughout the movie in its entirety. That’s where I was wrong. After watching the movie again and researching the different hero myths my opinion has changed. My new thoughts are that the movie is not influenced by the myth of Perceus any more than other hero myths. The movie ties together many different heroes’ stories and mixes them together to make a wonderful story about a young boy. The movie was based on a book series written by Rick Riordan.
The book Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is story about Greek Gods and Demi Gods. Percy Jackson is the main character and also a Demi God. Annabeth is Percy’s friend and also a Demi God. Tyson is a big strong Cyclops and also Percy’s friend. The story takes you through their adventure of finding the Golden fleece to save to save camp Half-blood from being exposed to the mortal world.
Have you ever wondered if gods were real? In “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” they are. There is a prophecy made at Camp Half-Blood, a place where half-bloods (people who have a mortal parent and a parent who is a god) live to stay safe from monsters that want to kill them. The prophecy is said by the Oracle, a magical being that inhibits a mummy’s body and spouts prophecies from time to time, telling what will happen during quests that half-bloods take. It stays in the attic of the “Big House” a place where the director of the camp lives. This particular prophecy revolves around Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. The prophecy comes true, but in ways that surprise Percy and his friends: Annabeth, daughter of Athena and
Percy Jackson and the Story of Perseus in Greek Mythology are both very well known. But taking a closer look they are more than a movie and a greek legend. They are stories that draw off each other and change the story to fit the time. For Percy it’s Modernized, but for Perseus it was in the Greek era. In this essay you will learn that Percy Jackson draws on the original legend of Perseus by generally keeping the plot the same and the characters. Although, the characters are a bit more modernized to be easier to connect to. It changes the legend in adding on a couple of other greek legends to add depth. This is shown through the plot modernization that takes place in real places, the Characters that are modernized but are the same on the inside,
Rick Riordan is an amazing author that is well known for his amazing books and novels. Rick Riordan wrote several novels, but his most famous series is the Percy Jackson. The Lightning Thief was the beginning of the series. Percy had to accept how he is a half-blood and has to return the stolen lightning bolt from Hades before a war starts. The authors style is fiction and greek mythology.
Something we all know about the Greek Gods is that there are a lot of them. From the God of Wine, to the Goddess of childbirth, there is a God or Goddess for everything. The main ones are the twelve with thrones made in Mount Olympus. And whom could be a better story teller of these then Percy Jackson? Percy takes the tales of how the world began, to each god and their personal battles, whether it was in war or love. With some side jests, and remarks for the readers, Percy takes each tale and gives it its own unique twist, keeping you captured till the end.
The novel is an extremely immersive experience owing to the protagonist - Percy Jackson - regularly breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the readers. It builds up suspense by foreshadowing the events to come, giving the readers a taste of the challenges awaiting Percy in the pages ahead. Percy is portrayed as the modern-day equivalent of classical heroes. Like the past heroes, Percy is treated differently by those around him, and has trouble fitting in with them. An absent father and a lack of knowledge of his own past help draw further parallels with the classical 'hero' figure. The significant people in Percy's life appear to know something about Percy that he doesn’t know and seek to protect him. Percy, however, is a stubborn
Through films, poetry, and art, mythology has become synonymous with an alternate telling of historical events, or explaining events previously misunderstood by the general public. Although it may seem like simple fiction to most, mythology has become intertwined with the Greek culture, and is key in an overall understanding of how the world works. The book I have read is “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief”. Through the eyes of Rick Riordan, a simple story of an ordinary student begins to unravel, and discusses several key figures and moments of ancient Greek culture, and therefore, mythological beings of grand power. Close to the beginning of the book, the main character, Percy Jackson, visits a museum and is asked to explain an event depicted in one of the picture. Afterwards, he is asked why knowledge of these mythological events would matter in reality (Riordan 5,6). This exact question is the central theme throughout the book, and is what I pondered throughout the story.
After being discovering that he’s a demigod of one of the three major Gods Poseidon, twelve year old Percy Jackson sets out a dangerous journey. A journey to save his mother from harm and to save the world from disaster from the Gods up above. This is a hero’s journey, a hero’s journey is someone who falls into adventure to slay the dragon and is idealized for his courage. The hero travels to one place to another going through a series of stages that help him complete his quest. It starts off first, the hero lives an ordinary life but is unique in some way that sets him apart from everyone else. The second stage he is then called for adventure where he leaves his ordinary life to the third stage crossing the threshold to a totally different
The film does a good job of accurately representing some of the minor characters from mythology as well. Percy’s friend Grover is a satyr, and displays a strong interest in many of the females in the film. Chiron, leader of the centaurs makes an appearance as well, disguised as one of Percy’s teachers. He later reveals himself to be a centaur and the leader of the Demigod Camp that Percy travels to. Charon also makes an appearance, and only allows Percy and his friends to travel to the Underworld once they have paid him. As mentioned before, Medusa appears in the film, and expresses her anger towards Athena for transforming her into a monster. She also tells Percy that she ‘used to date [Poseidon],’ which is a more family-friendly version of the Roman story where Poseidon rapes her in Athena’s temple.
Percy Jackson’s mum in the story is called Sally Jackson who was in a relationship with Poseidon, who left her to go on a journey across the Atlantic Ocean, and he never came back. Sally is now married to Gabe who wasn’t very nice, smelt and didn’t really care about Percy, but Sally may have married Gabe to protect Percy, because the smell may keep the monsters and bad away from him. We also get the feeling off Gabe that he doesn’t want Percy around (Riordan, 2005, p.32) ‘During school months, it was Gabe’s ‘study’. He didn’t study anything in there other than old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on the windowsill.’ and would be happy to see him go, which is the same in the story of Perseus, where Polydectes tries to get rid of Perseus, because he doesn’t want Polydectes to be with Danae. Percy not liking Gabe could be part of a retelling of the story of Perseus. Where Zeus is portrayed as Gabe, and Danae is Sally, and Zeus sends Danae and her baby (Percy Jackson) to an island beach where a fisherman found them, took them home with him and looked after them. Where as in the Percy Jackson story, Sally takes Percy on a break to the beach (Long Island), much against Gabe’s wishes, and instead of a fisherman finding them; it was Grover who came to help them. The change to the myth story is because Riordan believes that this is the way this situation would be portrayed in a
If there’s one thing one can count on when it comes to Greek gods, it’s that they’re critically flawed. Anyone reading Homer’s The Iliad can see the Greek gods act just like humans, constantly bickering, deceiving and throwing fits. The only people who can’t see through this facade of glorious immortality are the Greeks themselves. Throughout Homer’s entire epic, the gods continuously help the mortals based upon their own motives, and yet, the humans still worship them, ask them for help and forgiveness and blessings. Any reader would throw up their hands, disgusted that the humans glorify these beings that possess all the character flaws that mortals do. Homer is very successful in portraying humanity throughout his text, both through the perspective of the gods, and the perspective of the humans. While readers are allowed insight to both worlds, the characters themselves only see one dimension, resulting in the unequal nature of the humans constantly working to please the gods, sometimes to no avail. The Iliad exposes the fatal character flaws of the gods to readers, while also maintaining the mortal Greek perspective that gods are perfect beings, looking out for the greater good of mankind.
Percy Jackson from Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief displays many qualities of being a hero. According to the article, “The Hero’s Journey”, there are many different stages of being a hero. Percy acquires many characteristics of being a hero. Some of the stages that Percy relates to are: “The Ordinary World”, “The Call to Adventure”, “Allies/ Helpers”, and “Master of Two Worlds/ Restoring the World”. Therefore, Percy Jackson is presented as a hero from the different stages of “The Hero’s Journey”.
The gods were more involved in the Iliad than in the movie Troy. In the Iliad they manipulated people’s emotions, the weather, the outcomes of battle; they would disguise themselves to trick the characters into the move they wanted them to make, physically trip them up to give the opponent a better standing. In the movie the gods had no visible role they were more of a believe system and a thought process. The characters believed that there were signs from the gods letting them know how to proceed. An example of this is when determining wither to go into battles after a farmer saw a sparrow with a snake
Percy Jackson is a twelve year old boy that lives in New York, in modern time. He has attended a few private schools for troubled students (Riordan 1). In fact, he describes himself as a “troubled kid” with dyslexia and ADHD (Riordan 7). Percy is used to being the loner of the group, after attending six schools in the past six years which probably means he doesn’t make many friends. (Schmoop). His classmates do not have a need to scramble for money.