The Sea of Monsters

Much of the story takes place in the book’s titular location. Percy and Annabeth, accompanied off-and-on by Tyson and Clarisse, brave this monster-infested part of the ocean, for which Riordan draws heavily from Homer’s “Odyssey.” Like Odysseus, the “Odyssey’s” protagonist, the characters in The Sea of Monsters face both internal and external threats along the voyage, and all emerge changed.

To enter the Sea of Monsters, Percy and his friends pass between Scylla and Charybdis, monsters Odysseus faced on his long journey home. Riordan stays true to the descriptions Homer gave the monsters in the “Odyssey.” Charybdis appears as a whirlpool with rows of jagged teeth, and Scylla is an enormous six-headed sea creature. In the “Odyssey,” Odysseus sales closer to Scylla, thinking it best to lose only a few comrades to the heads than his entire ship to the whirlpool. By contrast, Clarisse steers straight for Charybdis, believing she can blast her way past the monster. By not heeding the advice of her fore-travelers, Charybdis’s power nearly destroys the ship and sends it straight into Scylla’s path. The result is the loss of the entire vessel and almost all of those aboard.

In Chapter 13, Percy and Annabeth arrive at C.C.’s (Circe’s) island and, like Odysseus, are seduced by the place’s beauty. Riordan updates Circe’s story, giving the sorceress a spa instead of a palace and having her change men into guinea pigs, rather than actual pigs. Similar to the “Odyssey,” Hermes provides the counter to Circe’s magic, but rather than the herb moly, Percy receives multivitamins that make him and Annabeth temporarily immune to magic. After fleeing Circe’s island, Percy and Annabeth travel past the island of the Sirens (creatures with the bodies of women and heads of birds). Like in the “Odyssey,” the Sirens’ beautiful singing lures sailors toward their island, where ships crash on the rocks. To protect himself and sail the ship, Percy plugs his ears with wax as Odysseus’s crew did. Like the hero himself, Annabeth listens to the song while tied to the ship’s mast, but using her knife, she is able to free herself and swim for the island, forcing Percy to save her.

Odysseus also faced the cyclops Polyphemus. Riordan stays true to the myth, except for updating the cyclops’s docile sheep to killer carnivores, and treats the “Odyssey” as if it were actual history and a cautionary tale. In the “Odyssey,” Odysseus outsmarts Polyphemus by claiming he is “Nobody” and blinding the creature’s one eye. To free Grover and Clarisse, Percy, like Odysseus, hides on the underbelly of a sheep to gain access to Polyphemus’s cave, and Annabeth pretends to be a returning “Nobody.” When they escape, Clarisse boasts her victory like Odysseus did, allowing the nearly blind Polyphemus to sink the group’s ship and claim he finally defeated “Nobody.”