67 pages • 2 hours read
Rick RiordanThe Mark Of Athena
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Weaving
In Greek antiquity, weaving, poetry, and cunning were associated with each other via shared language and imagery. Poets were described as metaphorically weaving stories, and cunning was also conceptualized as a woven quality. The connection between weaving and cunning comes together in the figure of Athena, whose domains include weaving (among other crafts) and strategy. In the Greek text, Homer’s Odysseus asks the goddess to “weave” him a plan to defeat the suitors besieging his household. Riordan draws on this interconnection throughout The Mark of Athena in several ways.
Riordan himself weaves together characters and narratives from across Greek and Roman mythologies, combining them to tell a unique story intended to appeal to modern readers. His versions of myths incorporate Greek ones recounted in Homer and Athenian tragedies as well as Roman retellings from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and more. Further, he incorporates narrative threads from his previous books in the Percy Jackson universe, continually expanding the world. His frequent use of foreshadowing can also be understood in terms of weaving since it entails a form of narrative patterning.
Weaving is also a central plot within The Mark of Athena’s narrative via Annabeth’s solo quest to recover the Mark of Athena. One of the lines of the prophecy that provokes her quest includes a reference to “a woven jail,” which sets the stage for her confrontation with Arachne, the mythical weaver who incurred Athena’s wrath (27, italics in original). Threads of the spider’s web wrapped around Annabeth’s ankle drag her into Tartarus, compelling Percy to follow her.
Finally, the demigods each “weave” cunning plots to overcome their antagonists. Leo, as a son of Hephaestus, is perpetually crafting ways to protect and rescue his friends. Percy tricks Chrysaor’s half-dolphin warriors by making them believe Dionysus is on board the ship. Piper protects herself and Nico from the giant twins’ leopards by using the cornucopia to generate roasts to satisfy their hunger. Annabeth tempts Arachne by suggesting that her deepest wish can be fulfilled, but only by keeping Annabeth alive to advocate for her.
The Athena Parthenos
Historically, the Athena Parthenos is believed to have been a cult statue in fifth century BCE Athens, approximately 37 feet tall and crafted of ivory and gold by famed sculptor Phidias. Dedicated to the city’s patron goddess, Athena, the statue would have been housed on the Acropolis. It was considered a symbol of the city’s wealth and power and famous enough that numerous copies were made of it during ancient times. The original is believed to have remained in Athens for around a thousand years before disappearing from history. One theory is that it was brought to Constantinople (the center of the Eastern Roman Empire from the fourth century CE through the Middle Ages) during the late antique period and later destroyed.
In The Mark of Athena, Riordan incorporates the statue as a symbol of Greek power and prestige that Rome usurped. The demigods discuss a legend that, after Rome conquered the Greek-speaking world, Romans transported the Athena Parthenos from Athens to Rome, where it remains hidden. If they can find the statue, the demigods reason, and restore it to Greek hands, whether to Camp Half-Blood or Olympus, the rift between the Greek and Roman camps and gods can be healed. Healing the rift is essential to defeating Gaea since the two sides will have to work together to prevent her from succeeding. At the end of the novel, the demigods have secured the statue and are preparing to travel with it to Greece.
The Cornucopia
Also known as the horn of plenty, the cornucopia in ancient Greek and Roman mythologies is a symbol of abundance. Greek and Roman versions of how the horn came into existence differ dramatically. The version Riordan draws on in The Mark of Athena is featured in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a Latin epic poem. According to this version, as also recounted in the novel, the river god Achelous loses his horn while battling Hercules over Deianeira. In Ovid, nymphs then fill the horn with autumnal fruits. In Riordan’s text, the cornucopia can expel whatever is needed in the moment when deployed earnestly.
In the novel, the cornucopia symbolizes generative power. Piper uses the cornucopia to channel clean water into the nymphaeum, washing away the pollutants that have poisoned the water and warped the nymphs. When Piper and Nico are threatened by Ephialtes and Otis’s leopards, the cornucopia expels roasts that satisfy the animals’ hunger. It also provides a birthday cake and candles for Jason.
The Pillars of Hercules
In ancient times, the Pillars of Hercules referred to the promontories that form the entrance to the straits of Gibraltar, flanked on the northern side by the Rock of Gibraltar and on the southern side by a North African mountain peak. As is typical, Greek and Roman mythologies provide a variety of explanations and stories associated with Hercules.
One consistent detail that Riordan incorporates is that the Pillars represent a demarcation point. Annabeth explains, “For Greeks, the pillars marked the end of the known world,” and the Romans believed the earning “Nothing Further Beyond” was inscribed on there (235, italics in original). The demigods pass through the Pillars on their way the ancient lands, Rome and Greece, where they will face new and more dangerous challenges. The Pillars thus symbolize transition, from their own world of North America to a land that has previously been off limits.
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