Percy Jackson's Greek Gods

Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods (2014) by Rick Riordan is a short story collection in which Riordan’s fictional character Percy Jackson narrates stories about the Greek gods that inhabit his world. The collection focuses on the Greek creation myth, the Titans, and the Olympian gods, providing additional context to Riordan’s New York Times best-selling Percy Jackson series (the first book of which is The Lightning Thief), which was followed by Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes. A New York Times best-selling author who pens books for both children and adults, Riordan is best known for his Percy Jackson universe. Before authoring these books, Riordan taught Greek mythology at the middle-school level for several years, and Percy Jackson began as a bedtime story for his son to feature a child with dyslexia as the protagonist and hero of a story. 

This guide follows the 2014 Disney Hyperion first edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide include discussions of violence, rape, sexual harassment, death by suicide, and physical and emotional abuse. 

Plot Summary

The short story collection Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods supplements Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians fantasy series for young readers. The stories, which Riordan’s fictional character Percy narrates, feature Percy’s signature humor and use of modern-day references, reimagining the Greek gods through a contemporary lens while staying true to the exploits that the ancient tales describe. After introducing himself as a demigod son of Poseidon, Percy describes the creation of the world as Greek myths depict it. Through the tales of Gaia, Ouranos, and the other primordial gods, Percy tells of how Earth emerged from chaos. Later, elements such as the sky, water, and Underworld were formed, beginning a centuries-long tradition of immortal beings falling in love, having children, vying for dominance, and overthrowing one another in gruesome displays.

Following the exploration of the primordial gods, Percy introduces the Titans—a powerful race of beings who existed before the well-known Olympian gods. Here, Percy focuses on Kronos, the father of the gods and the youngest of the Titans. Though Kronos isn’t particularly strong, he’s cunning and smart, which enables him to move into a position of power after dethroning his father, Ouranos. Upon his death, Ouranos curses Kronos to be similarly destroyed by his children someday, which sets up years of battles, cannibalism, and uncertainty as Kronos desperately tries to hold onto his power.

After trying to destroy his children only for Zeus (his youngest child and future king of the Olympians) to save them, Kronos is defeated after a long battle and sent to the pits of Tartarus, from which he emerges as a major threat in the Percy Jackson series. In the meantime, Zeus and his siblings (Hera, Demeter, Hestia, Hades, and Poseidon) establish themselves in a palace at the top of Mount Olympus, from which they rule over the world and all who inhabit it. After the creation of humans, the gods find they enjoy having people to worship them. However, some humans would rather defy the gods, and these situations meet swift and brutal punishment.

The rest of the book offers Percy’s takes on the exploits of the gods. He shows how each has both positive and negative qualities (some more than others) and reveals that the gods, though immortal, make just as many mistakes as humans. The intricate interplay of godly relationships explores themes of discrimination, societal norms, and the darkness within all beings, and each god has the opportunity to learn lessons, accepting or dismissing them as they choose. In an Afterword (which this guide doesn’t summarize), Percy hints at further installments of his tales and tells his demigod readers to stay safe, a nod to how the Percy Jackson series is told as a warning to half-human children of the Greek gods.