persephone the phony: part two

Having escaped from her friends, and feeling proud of herself for rebelling, Persephone goes back to the cemetery. She picks a pomegranate and starts to eat it when Hades shows up. He is upset with her for avoiding him all day at school. She apologizes and offers him some of her fruit.

*** Mythology Point #9 *** In Greek Mythology the roles are reversed - it is Hades who offers the pomegranate to Persephone.

As Persephone and Hades hang out she notices three hawks circling overhead. They fly off and she thinks nothing of it. Soon it is time to go home and she leaves Hades. But when she gets home she finds her mother furious with her and her friends looking embarrassed. She realizes the hawks were her friends and they told her mother all about her going to the cemetery and hanging out with Hades. Aphrodite tries to talk to Persephone and explain what happened but Persephone refuses to speak to her. That night, after her mother goes to bed, Persephone resolves to run away to the underworld. Disguising herself as an old woman she climbs into Charon's ferry.

*** Mythology Point #10 *** Charon is the ferryman who brings the souls to the underworld.

She doesn't have a coin to pay him but another soul on the boat has an extra and gives it to her.

*** Mythology Point #11 *** Without a coin to pay him, Charon will not bring you across the river Styx.

When she reaches the underworld Persephone tries to break apart from the group of souls who are about to be judged but a cyclops, named Thanatos stops her. She explains that she is a goddess in disguise but Thanatos does not believe her.

*** Mythology Point #12 *** Thanatos is the personification of death.

As Thanatos talks to her another cyclops, named Hypnos, who looks exactly like Thanatos appears.

*** Mythology Point #13 *** Hypnos is the twin brother of Thanatos and he is the personification of sleep.

Hypnos and Thanatos get into an argument and during it it is mentioned that Hades is in Tartarus. Persephone sneaks away to find Hades, ditching her disguise.

*** Mythology Point #14 *** Tartarus is the place of eternal punishment that is reserved for the worst human souls.

Persephone finds Hades but much to her disappointment he isn't happy to see her and insists on taking her home. They get into a huge fight when he drops her off. When she goes inside her mother misreads the situation and believes Hades has convinced Persephone to run away. On the verge of another fight, Persephone convinces her mother to actually listen to her and Demeter does. In the end Demeter concedes that she does need to give Persephone more freedom and space. The next day at school Persephone makes up with her friends. She also joins Hades for lunch, where principal Zeus suggests they go to the school dance together. When they are alone Hades asks her and she agrees. Demeter is unsure of the dance but Persephone convinces her she should go. Everyone arrives at the dance and Apollo, twin to Artemis, and his band is preforming.

*** Mythology Point #15 *** Apollo is the god of music and is twin brother to Artemis.

Ares sees Hades at the dance and tries to attack him.

*** Mythology Point #16 *** Ares is the god of war.

Aphrodite distracts Ares by asking him for a dance then recanting. Zeus sees a commotion going on and goes over to investigate. Hades covers for Ares, causing Ares to change his views on Hades. Because of Ares's change in attitude Aphrodite agrees to dance with Ares and everyone has a good time.

*** Mythology Point #17 *** Ares and Aphrodite are in love, despite Aphrodite being married to Hephaestus.

persephone the phony: part one

Aphrodite wants to go to the immortal marketplace with her friends. Athena agrees to go along since she needs new knitting supplies.

*** Mythology Point #1 *** Athena is known for her weaving skills.

Persephone doesn't feel like going but agrees since she doesn't want to upset her friends. They put on their winged sandals and leave.

*** Mythology Point #2 *** Hermes wears winged sandals to help him travel faster.

They head immediately for the beauty store where Aphrodite requests makeovers for them. Athena declines. Persephone was about to decline as well but Aphrodite already pulled out a stool for her so she feels she now has to do the makeover. She leaves the store feeling miserable and with a ton of beauty supplies she doesn't want. Next, Athena spots Arachne's Sewing Supplies.

*** Mythology Point #3 *** Arachne is a weaver whose skills rival Athena's. Athena turns her into a spider for her disrespect for the gods.

Athena and Aphrodite tall about making dresses for the upcoming dance. Persephone tries to pretend she is excited but in reality she knows her mother will never let her go.

*** Mythology Point #4 *** Demeter is incredibly possessive of Persephone.

Persephone wishes to go to her mother's store, but knows her friends do not care for gardening so she doesn't suggest it. Athena picks out stuff for Persephone to buy, insisting she needs to take up knitting. Persephone feels like a phony. Her friends return to school while Persephone heads home. On the way she drops the ball of yarn and chases it down to earth, finding herself in a cemetery. Persephone finds the cemetery peaceful and fascinating. Seeing some drooping lilies she revives them.

*** Mythology Point #5 *** Persephone is a nature goddess as well as a goddess of the dead.

Suddenly the ground splits open and Hades appears, riding a horse.

*** Mythology Point #6 *** That is exactly how Hades abducted Persephone, only he was in a carriage.

Persephone and Hades talk for a bit. Persephone doesn't see why everyone is convinced that Hades is bad news and personally thinks he is very nice. Demeter shows up and drags Persephone away, making a scene, much to Persephone's embarrassment. In the class the next day Persephone keeps thinking of Hades. Mr Cyclops tells the class his sandals are missing and offers two homework passes to whoever finds them. Pheme says she heard they are in the river Styx.

*** Mythology Point #7 *** Pheme is the goddess of gossip.

Persephone goes off with her friends to look. While searching the river Styx Hades arrives.

*** Mythology Point #8 *** Styx is the river that separates the world of the living from the world of the dead. 

Hades hints to Persephone that he knows where one of the sandals are, however Persephone's friends see Hades and immediately separate Persephone from him, feeling that Hades is a bad person. The next day at school Persephone keeps seeing Hades but goes out of her way to avoid him. At lunch her friends ask her to go shopping with them but she realizes they are trying to keep an eye on her and keep her away from Hades. Upset and hurt, Persephone tells them she has other plans and leaves them.

athena the brain: part two

I didn't mean for it to be so long before I finished this book! The Warriors series has been slowly taking over my life, apparently...

Athena goes to her room to start working on inventions for the fair and finds out her roommate is Pandora. Pandora won't stop asking questions about all of Athena's new inventions.

*** Myhtology Point 11 *** Athena's inventions include the olive tree, a rake, and a ship.

Aphrodite and Artemis stop by her room and Pandora asks after Persephone. Aphrodite tells her that Persephone is living with her mom this year.

*** Mythology Point 12 *** Demeter is very possessive of Persephone, even causing winter in her grief for her daughter's absence.

Suddenly all of Athena's inventions rain down on Earth. Zeus is annoyed but her friends cheer her up with stories of their own blunders.

*** Mythology Point 13 *** Pandora's blunder was opening a box of disasters in Mr Epimetheus's class and unleashing them on Earth. Pandora marries Epimetheus.

The next day Athena rushes to Hero-ology class. Aphrodite has had Paris fall in love with Helen and bring her back to Troy. However Medusa's hero, Menelaus, is also in live with Helen and now Odysseus must help Menelaus. Class ends with Athena remembering her toy horse and giving it to the Trojan's as a gift. She has the Goddess Girl Squad tryouts, which she finds herself enjoying - despite Medusa and her sisters mocking her by making up a cheer about her mother being a fly. Coach Nike and the Muses are in charge of the tryouts.

*** Mythology Point 14 *** Nike is the goddess of victory and the Muses are goddesses of the arts.

Someone announces that the Greeks and Trojans are fighting it out and everyone races off to see.

*** Mythology Point 15 *** The Greeks climb out of the horse and win the Trojan War.

The next morning Athena notices one of her inventions is missing. She called it "snarkypoo" - shampoo that turns snarky thoughts into stone - but Aphrodite notices that she misspelled it as "snakeypoo." They rush to class, finding a new lifelike statue along the way. After their first class they realize that both Pandora and Medusa are missing. Then they realize the statue looks exactly like Pandora. They find Medusa and she now has snakes for hair, thanks to Athena's shampoo.

*** Mythology Point 16 *** Throughout the whole book Medusa has been flirting with Poseidon. She has also been angry that Poseidon is more interested in Athena. In mythology, Athena curses Medusa with snake hair for being raped by Poseidon in her temple.

Medusa turns Athena's dogs to stone and refuses to break the spell. Athena finds a scared Poseidon off to the side and gets him to trick Medusa into looking into Aphrodite's shield shaped mirror.

*** Mythology Point 17 *** Perseus uses his shield's reflective surface to defeat Medusa.

Athena finds a spell to reverse Medusa's spell, but everyone convinces her to not use it on Medusa quite yet. The next day is the Invention Fair. Athena didn't enter her submission in time, but she wins anyway. The people of Earth love her olives so much that they declare her the winner and even name a town after her. Poseidon comes in second place with his water park.

*** Mythology Point 18 *** Athena and Poseidon had a contest over a town, once. Athena offered the olive tree and Poseidon a spring of salt water. Athena was declared the winner and the town was named Athens in her honor.

Athena wins a weekend visit from her friend Pallas. Zeus makes Pallas appear instantly, and Athena happily introduces her to her new friends.

The mythology was different, but I like how everything was woven in. I'm sure I missed some references, but these were the ones that stood out to me. And the book was total fluff, but despite that it was a fun read.

athena the brain: part one

So, I decided over whether or not to do a post (or, rather, two posts) on this book. First of all, it's very short. It's only 160 pages with fairly large print. Second of all, even when I picked it up it seemed kind of fluffy. I mean, there is nothing wrong with reading fluff, but do I really need to write about it. Third of all, I'm very swamped right now. Which is why I still don't have June's list of books up yet. Lastly, I wasn't sure how I felt about a book series where the main character jumps around from book to book. But I decided if I liked the book halfway through I would give it a post. Well, I'm halfway through so here is my post.

Now two things. Number one, this book follows Athena. Athena is a girl on Earth who knows that she is different and feels that she doesn't fit in but doesn't understand why. Then, one day (in the opening chapter, actually), she gets a letter from Zeus and discovers that not only is he her father but that he is principal of a school for gods and goddesses and she is invited to attend. So, some belief needs to be suspended here. I know with mythology belief needs to be suspended in general, but they are really pushing it here.

Number two, there is no real chronology here. Zeus is grown up but Poseidon - who is Zeus's older brother in mythology - is just a teenager who also attends this school. Aphrodite, who is a titan who far predates Zeus and Poseidon, is also a teenager who attends this school. Hermes, Zeus's son and Athena's half sibling, meanwhile, is all grown up and seems to be the delivery boy for the school. But so far there has been no mention of him being Athena's sibling. Or of Poseidon being Zeus's brother, for that matter.

Now on that note so far the story is actually pretty good so far. Like I said, Athena finds out she is Zeus's daughter and is invited to this school.

*** Mythology Point #1 *** Athena is an orphan who lives with her friend Pallas, and Pallas's parents. She decides to ask Zeus when she gets a chance if Pallas can attend the school with her.

She decides to attend and her childhood friend Pallas helps her pack.

*** Mythology Point #2 *** While Athena and Pallas are packing, Athena's childhood toy - a wooden horse on wheels that has a compartment in it - gets packed with her stuff.

Hermes picks her up and she finds herself at the school. Being a brainiac she decides to take five classes - which is apparently considered a lot according to Ms. Hydra who helps Athena get set up.

*** Mythology Point #3 *** Okay, for crying out loud, this one is really obvious. But for the record, Ms. Hydra does have nine heads.

Athena meets Medusa and her sisters (though she doesn't know their names yet) who are pretty cold towards her, Pandora (who doesn't stop talking), followed by Aphrodite.

*** Mythology Point #4 *** Aphrodite informs Athena that Medusa is human unlike her sisters and that Pandora is a very special human to the gods.

Athena and Aphrodite go to their first class together, called Hero-ology. Their there teacher, Mr. Cyclops, gives them an assignment. They have to pull a statue of a hero from a helmet. That hero is their assignment for the semester. They have to guide the hero on a quest. Athena asks how they are supposed to do this and is mocked by Medusa for not knowing the basics. Mr. Cyclops informs Athena that she will have to do some catching up since she is new.

*** Mythology Point #5 *** Yes, Mr. Cyclops only has one eye. Athena pulls Odysseus and Aphrodite pulls Paris. Aphrodite muses that maybe for Paris's quest she will have him fall in love.

Medusa makes fun of Aphrodite for picking love as a quest and calls her "Bubbles." Athena asks why and Aphrodite admits that it is because of how she was born.

*** Mythology Point #6 *** Aphrodite was born of sea foam.

After assuring Aphrodite that sea foam is beautiful, Athena is called to the office - and the announcement makes it clear that she is Zeus's (favorite) daughter. Athena drops her bag, spilling her toy wooden horse much to her mortification, and goes and meet Zeus for the first time. While there she finds out that her mother Metis is also in the room - as a fly in Zeus's head.

*** Mythology Point #7 *** Zeus swallowed Metis which is why Athena was born from his forehead.

After talking for a bit, Pheme shows up to bring Athena back to class. She admits to overhearing Zeus say that Metis is a fly in his head, but assures Athena her secret is safe with her. But when they get back to class she immediately runs over to Medusa.

*** Mythology Point #8 *** Pheme is the goddess of rumors and gossip - and Aphrodite tells Athena this.

Aphrodite has a different class (Beast-ology) to go to then Athena, so Poseidon offers to take her there. Poseidon is the hottest boy at Mount Olympus Academy. Even Medusa seems to be in love with him. They arrive at their next class and Mr. Landon is their teacher.

*** Mythology Point #9 *** Landon is the dragon that guards the tree of golden apples. Poseidon jokes that Mr. Landon has "the worst dragon breath."

Next is lunch where Medusa and her (now named) sisters mock Athena over her mother. After leaving Athena decides to spend some time knitting.

*** Mythology Point #10 *** Athena is known for her weaving skills.

She also attempts to eat a cookie, without realizing it is a "oracle-o" cookie. The cookie informs her that she will be famous. Unable to eat a talking cookie Athena leaves. On her way out she sees a poster for an invention competition. The poster has the same tag line as what her cookie told her so she decides to sign up. Poseidon sees her there and after making a comment about how he heard Athena was smart, tells her she can be his assistant on his project. Athena, upset at his sudden change in attitude, turns him down. Poseidon leaves annoyed. She then runs into Aphrodite with her friends Artemis and Persephone. Aphrodite urges Athena to join the Goddess Girl Squad - the equivalent of a cheerleader squad. Athena is already feeling so overwhelmed between her five classes, being behind in those classes, and signing up for the invention fair - but she also wants to be friends with Aphrodite and make her dad proud so she agrees.

So, like I said, this book is a bit of fluff. But I'm already halfway through it and I really don't see how these story lines are going to all get resolved in the next five chapters. If Athena was the protagonist of the next book I wouldn't mind, but it's about Persephone. However, with that said, I do like the story so far and I love all the mythology references. And, while Athena did help take down Medusa I always see her foe as Arachne...

Anyway, that's it for tonight.