The Mark Of Athena

The giants vanish and reappear in different spots around the room, triggering traps for the demigods. Standing guard over an unconscious Nico, Piper fends off leopards by launching food at them from the cornucopia. Jason battles Otis, sword to spear. Percy ends up fighting a hydra. Having fought one before, Percy knows that slicing its heads off is useless; two grow back for each one sliced off. Instead, he looks for potential fire sources and finds them among an explosions-display the giants have planned to blow up Rome. The explosives begin to bring down animal cages and chunks of ceiling.

The demigods manage to destroy the giants, but as soon as they disintegrate, the giants begin to reform. Ephialtes complains that the demigods have “ruined the spectacle” but reminds them that, without a god, they cannot kill the giants, and the giants can kill them (383). Jason and Percy defiantly reply that they will not give up and will cut the giants to pieces, even without a god. At that moment, Bacchus descends on a platform saying he would “hate to think I made a special trip for nothing” (383).

The two leopards nuzzle Bacchus, who scolds Ephialtes for using them for his spectacle. He proclaims Ephialtes’s props and effects “[t]acky, cheap, and boring,” infuriating the giant (385, italics in original). Jason asks if they are going to kill the giants together, and Bacchus says the demigods must prove themselves “worthy of [his] help” (386). If they impress him, he will join them for the “grand finale” (386). He sets the gears in motion, and they find themselves in the Colosseum, filled with spectators and with Bacchus seated in the emperor’s box. Jason, Percy, and the giants are in the arena together. “Entertain me, heroes of Olympus,” Bacchus tells them, opening a Diet Coke can, which sets the crowd cheering (387).

Percy is furious that Bacchus has turned the fight into a game, but he has no choice. Ephialtes and Otis attack as the crowd jeers and shouts. Percy realizes that he and Jason need to work together. They vaporize Otis, trapping his essence in a whirlpool that prevents him from reforming, then parry Ephialtes. Just as the giant gets the upper hand, the Argo appears over the stadium.

Percy rudely asks Bacchus if that was “entertaining enough for you,” and Bacchus appears beside him in the arena. He lifts his thyrsus, and the crowd jeers, making the thumbs down gesture. He smacks what is left of Otis with his thyrsus, and the giant disintegrates. Bacchus repeats the gesture with Ephialtes, and the crowd cheers. He gives the demigods permission to continue their journey, telling the puzzled group that “the parking lot behind the Emmanuel Building is the “[b]est place to break through” (393). Coach, Hazel, Frank, and Leo join them and explain how they escaped, but they still need to rescue Annabeth.

Back at the Argo, they set their course for the Emmanuel Building. Nico, conscious but weak, explains that Hades had led him to Camp Jupiter, instructing him to keep its existence secret. Nico now believes his father wanted him to understand the quest’s importance and search for the Doors of Death. He learned they have two exits, one in Tartarus, “the maximum-security prison of Hades,” and the other at Epirus in Greece (397). Gaea’s forces guard the latter. The doors must be sealed on both sides, but Nico says no demigods could survive Tartarus. They arrive at the Emmanuel Building.