Percy Jackson and the Olympians is not only a fantastic adaptation of Rick Riordan’s iconic books, but it encourages us to take a deeper look at the series’ main themes.
The Camp Half-Blood Chronicles are action-packed and full of the type of humor that will tickle the fancy of kids and adults alike, but this series also packs a punch when it comes to its heartfelt commentary on life’s hardest lessons. Throughout these novels, the main characters learn about love and loss, they fight for fairness and freedom, and they do it all while standing in the shadows of gods and monsters.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Disney+ shines a spotlight on these same motifs, reworking them to fit within the confines of a new medium. This is perhaps most obvious when it comes to the show’s take on the concept of monstrosity.
There are hints at what’s to come in the very first episode, when a young Percy attends the Metropolitan Museum of Art with his mother, Sally. She takes him to the statue of Perseus holding aloft Medusa’s head after he’s slain her.
“Is that why you named me after him?” Percy asks. “Because he was a hero?”
“What makes you think he was a hero?” Sally responds.
“Because he kills monsters.”
“And what makes you think she was a monster?”
Percy chides her: “Mom.”
“Not everyone who looks like a hero is a hero,” Sally says, “and not everyone who looks like a monster is a monster.”
This sentiment runs rampant in the books as well. It’s most notable, and perhaps most personal, when we meet Tyson in The Sea of Monsters. Annabeth and the other campers are wary of him because he is a cyclops, and yet his nature is so different from the rest of his kind. Conversely, when we meet the great hero Hercules in the Heroes of Olympus series, he is nothing like legend suggests, his immortality having turned him bitter and cruel. Throughout the series, Percy learns that while the gods are meant to be beings of great power and wisdom, they are often petty and tyrannical.
Having laid the foundation early on, the television show trusts us to remember Sally’s words when we meet Medusa in episode 3 as she stops the fury Alecto from harming Percy, Annabeth, and Grover, saying, “We all choose who we make our monsters, but, right now, that one wants to tear you limb from limb, and I’m offering you lunch. The choice is yours.”
Percy is confident in his mom’s story and his own instincts, following Medusa into her home and forcing Annabeth and Grover to trail after him. For now, they are safe from Alecto, and yet, we can’t help but wonder if Percy has walked into the lair of a more dangerous creature. After all, Medusa’s story is famous, even to modern audiences.
But do we know the truth of what happened, of why a mortal was turned into a monster? Even Grover, a satyr who has grown up in this magical world, questions whether he knows the veracity of her tale.
Sure enough, Medusa is nothing like we expected. She wears a simple dress, reserved and classic, the veil of her hat tilted to cover her eyes. She speaks in a slow and measured tone, her voice high and light. She’s even quick to smile, to offer the kids a proper lunch, to tell them she cannot abide bullies.
There is pride in her tone as she calls herself a survivor. She speaks positively of her ability to turn men to stone, saying, “The gift the gods gave me is that I cannot be bullied anymore.” When Annabeth calls it a curse instead, Medusa is all too happy to provide the trio with her side of the story.
“Athena was everything to me,” she begins. “I worshipped her. I prayed to her. I made offerings. She never answered. Not even an omen to suggest she appreciated my love.” Medusa looks to Annabeth. “I wasn’t like you, sweetheart. I was you. I would’ve worshipped her that way for a lifetime—in silence. But then, one day, another god came and he broke that silence.” Now, Medusa turns her attention to Percy. “Your father. The Sea God told me that he loved me. I felt as though he saw me in a way I had never felt seen before. But then Athena declared that I had embarrassed her and I needed to be punished. Not him. Me. She decided I would never be seen again by anyone who would live to tell the tale.”
Perhaps the most common version of the myth paints Medusa as a beautiful woman who captures Poseidon’s attention, tempting him into lying with her within the confines of Athena’s temple. The virgin goddess is angered by their actions and turns Medusa into a hideous monster with snakes for hair and the ability to turn people to stone.
In more modern interpretations, Medusa is perceived to be the victim of sexual assault, considering the power imbalance between a divine being and a mere mortal. Though the show doesn’t mention this in explicit detail, her claim that she is a survivor hints at this particular reading of the situation, as does her statement that Poseidon broke the silence of her vows. (Plus, Jessica Parker Kennedy has confirmed that she chose to play the character as a woman who was a victim of rape and abandonment.) The show places emphasis on the fact that it was Medusa who was punished, not Poseidon, despite his involvement in the betrayal. The parallel between Medusa’s story and the stories of many victims of sexual assault is apparent.
It is not difficult to empathize with Medusa in this moment, though Annabeth takes issue with the idea that her mother was anything other than just. Medusa is patient as she explains that the gods want their children to believe they are infallible. “But they only want what all bullies want,” she continues. “They want us to blame ourselves for their own shortcomings.”
But Medusa’s patience is not infinite. I love that she doesn’t raise her voice or even push back against Annabeth, knowing she won’t be able to convince the daughter of Athena to change her mind about the mother she worships. Instead, Medusa leads Percy into the kitchen where she tells him that she feels protective of him.
“Your mother and I, we’re like sisters in a way,” Medusa says. “Targeted by the same monster.”
Up until this point, the gods have been portrayed as powerful allies albeit neglectful parents, but this is the first time the term monster has been applied to them. “My mom never talked about my dad that way,” Percy says, remembering how Sally called him wise and brave and kind and noble. It’s not hard to recall Medusa’s words from earlier in the episode—“We all choose who we make our monsters.”
When Percy disappears from the kitchen, effectively giving Medusa the answer to her question of whether he would allow her to petrify his friends, she chooses to make the trio into her own monsters. The removal of her hat is Medusa’s version of the gloves coming off—her snakes are no longer restrained into the loose bun against the nape of her neck, and her gaze is free to fall upon those she has deemed her enemies.
“We are not our parents,” she says, repeating an earlier sentiment, but with an addendum—“until we choose to be.”
Annabeth and Percy have chosen to walk in the footsteps of their parents, the two gods who have wronged Medusa the most. She calls Annabeth the self-righteous daughter of a self-righteous mother, while she accuses Percy of refusing to stand up for someone he loves, just like Poseidon. In Percy’s world, he is choosing to save Annabeth and Grover’s lives, and therefore he is no monster. But to Medusa, he is simply doing his father’s bidding instead of saving his mother from a fate she didn’t deserve.
Many fans have pointed out the parallel between Medusa’s story and what happens to Annabeth in Percy Jackson and the Olympians episode 4, but it bears repeating. After Percy dares to send Medusa’s head to the gods, Athena punishes Annabeth for going along with his impertinence by revoking sanctuary from the St. Louis Arch, allowing Echidna and the chimera to enter, not caring if it would spell her daughter’s doom.
After Annabeth’s vehement defense of her mother in the previous episode, hearing this must be like a knife to the heart. Just the day before, she couldn’t imagine Athena being anything but just, and yet Annabeth is now being punished for Percy’s act of defiance. The godly parent that she looked up to, had so much respect for, has now turned her back on her child for simply embarrassing her. Suddenly, the goddess of wisdom seems like nothing more than a fickle despot.
Meanwhile, Percy has no relationship with his father, outside of the one time Poseidon offered him the curtesy of claiming him in front of everyone at Camp Half-Blood. There is no love lost on Percy’s part, and the only reason he’s going on this quest is in the hopes of saving his mother. He couldn’t care less if they retrieve Zeus’ lost master bolt in the process, even if it means war amongst the gods.
And yet, it is Poseidon who saves Percy when he falls from the St. Louis Arch after the fight with the chimera. Trapped in the water of the Mississippi River, a nereid visits the young demigod and tells him, “Your father is here. He’s always been here. It is so hard for him to stand back. To see you struggle. It is so hard for us all. But he’s here, and he’s so very proud. Trust him. Trust yourself. Just breathe.”
The irony won’t be lost on anyone who’s been paying close attention—after everything Annabeth has done to defend Athena, to worship her, to show her the utmost respect, she is abandoned when she needs her mother most. And yet, here is Percy, refusing to reach out to Poseidon for help, accused of being the lightning thief, constantly talking about how much he doesn’t want or need his father’s affection, and yet the god does not hesitate to step in and save his son’s life, regardless of the potential repercussions he could face from Zeus, Athena, or any of the other Olympians.
Parental relationships are complicated because people are complicated, and though the gods are divine, they represent the best and worst parts of humanity, their stories taking place on the grandest of scales. Athena is depicted as the wise warrior whose children are born from a thought in her mind and given as a gift to a mortal who has caught her attention, and yet she is the one to blame for Medusa’s condition, for Annabeth’s situation. On the other hand, Poseidon is the temperamental god of the sea who seemingly abandoned both Medusa and Sally Jackson, and yet has been watching out for his son throughout the years from beneath the surface of the waves.
Hero and monster are often different sides of the same coin, depending on your viewpoint.
I found this to be even more true when we were finally introduced to Echidna in Percy Jackson and the Olympians episode 4. Like Medusa, she is much more than she appears at first glance. Dressed in jeans and a bright blazer, the woman is all smiles as she sits down with the kids, reassuring them that she believes they didn’t destroy their cabin. As a mother, she understands how scared they must be in this moment, all alone and without their parents to help them.
“This isn’t your fault,” she says. “But sadly, you’re going to have to bear the burden of your parents’ mistakes today.” This sentiment is not unlike Medusa’s when she tells the trio that they’ve chosen to be like their parents and therefore will need to be punished. When Percy calls the woman a monster, that’s when we learn that she’s the mother of monsters, Echidna.
“Monster, that’s an odd word,” she muses, “considering my grandmother is your great-grandmother, and this has always been a family story.” Indeed, Greek mythology is rife with sibling rivalries and parental jealousy, made worse by the fact that the Greek gods were an incestuous lot. The ties that bind are twisted to the point of entanglement, made all the more dangerous due to the divine nature of the players on the board.
Echidna is, of course, talking about Gaea, who bore both Echidna’s parents, Phorcys and Ceto, with the sea god Pontus. Gaea also gave birth to Kronos, Poseidon’s father. Interestingly, the gorgons, including Medusa, are often cited as the offspring of Phorcys and Ceto as well, making Echidna their sister. So while Poseidon went on to father demigod heroes like Percy Jackson, Echidna gave birth to monsters such as Cerberus, the hydra, the Nemean Lion, the sphinx, and yes, the chimera.
Once again, Percy Jackson and the Olympians tells us that monstrosity is a matter of perspective. “To my eye, the demigod is the more dangerous creature,” Echidna tells the trio. “Disruptive. Violent. If I exist for anything, it is to stand in the way of monsters—like you.”
And though we know that Echidna is dangerous and that she is there to hurt Percy and his friends, we can’t help but feel the slightest bit of empathy for her situation. After all, she has given birth to many creatures throughout her immortal life, and has watched as so-called heroes have cut them down in the name of honor and glory. But whose honor? And whose glory? Certainly not hers, as she grieves the loss of her children, who have done nothing more than be true to their natures.
What fascinated me most about this episode was the clear parallel between Sally Jackson helping a young Percy learn how to swim and Echidna teaching her precious daughter, the chimera, how to hunt. Both mothers have an undying love for their children, and both would sacrifice the world to give their offspring the best chance at survival. Can you really blame a mother for wanting to ensure their child’s longevity, by any means necessary?
Related: Disney+’s ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ enhances Percy and Sally’s relationship from the books
We’re only halfway through Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 1, and yet this show has provided us with so much to think about, analyze, and discuss. I can’t wait to see how the last four episodes further build on the concept of monstrosity, as well as how the show will handle this theme in season 2 and beyond.
‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ airs Tuesdays at 9pm ET on Disney+
Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4