User blog comment:SayuriDarling/The Mark of Athena Official Discussion/@comment-4649443-20130526234514/@comment-3146930-20130527000749

The books are actually littered with mythological references if you know where to look. The thing with Clarisse above is only the tip of the iceberg. For example, the reason that Achilles didn't want to fight is because a woman he had claimed as his (Briseis) was taken away from him by Agamemnon. Not only that, but the reason Agamemnon took Briseis was to replace the woman he returned to Troy. This woman was named Chryseis and was a daughter of one of Apollo's priests.

In The Last Olympian, Clarisse was told by Chiron that her prize would be given to the Apollo cabin. As a result, Clarisse refused to fight. Both cases, mythology and the series, we have a warrior refusing to fight because their prize was taken from them by a higher ruler and given to a follower of Apollo (Chryseis' father and Apollo's own children respectively).

And like I said, there are other links to mythology. I mean we have Frank and Thanatos, as in the original myth Thanatos was captured and Ares saved him. The Sea of Monsters had a lot of references to The Odyssey and the original quest for the Golden Fleece. Castor and Pollux are characters in the series, as well as characters in mythology...and so on and so forth.