The Titan's Curse

The Titan's Curse is the third book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, written by Rick Riordan. It was published on May 1st, 2007.

Meeting Grover at Westover Hall
In December, six months after the Sea of Monsters adventure, Percy, Thalia and Annabeth go to Westover Hall to meet Grover, who had found two powerful demigod siblings there, Bianca and Nico di Angelo. Thalia displays the ability to manipulate The Mist, and tries to convince a resident teacher and the vice principal there that the three belonged to the school and manages to not let the three get kicked out before they could find the satyr. Grover soon informs them that Dr. Thorn, the vice-principal of Westover hall, is a manticore (a half scorpion, lion, and human monster), and is suspicious of the two half-bloods' true identities, therefor he was not fooled by Thalia's trick of the mist. She formulates a plan to distract Dr. Thorn; however the plan backfires on them. Percy, who was forced to dance to blend in with the crowd, sees Dr. Thorn attempting to sneak away with the two half-bloods. He couldn't see Thalia, Annabeth, or Grover, so he followed Dr. Thorn. When he got to Bianca and Nico, Dr. Thorn threw a thorn and it grazed his shoulder. Percy soon recognized the feeling of poison. Percy was too weak to fight and Percy heard him talk about The Great Stirring and wondered what could possibly be stirring. Percy got close to Bianca who was freaking out and Nico who was overjoyed and scared. Percy let Dr. Thorn bring them to a cliff and he called someone and said that 'the package was ready to be delivered'. Percy concentrated hard to send a message to Grover, through their empathy link, that he was in danger. It worked and soon Grover, Thalia and Annabeth show up and Dr. Thorn reveals his true form as a manticore. Some silver arrows pass Percy and hit the manticore. Then Thorn shoots a volley of thorns to the shooters and more silver arrows came out and split them in half perfectly. The shooters got out of the bushes. They were all young girls wearing silver clothing. Their skin seemed to have a slight silvery glow. They were the Hunters of Artemis. They are about to shoot when Dr. Thorn lunged at Percy and Thalia, knowing they were weak and Annabeth climbed on Dr. Thorn with her knife, then the hunters shot and he fell from the cliff, taking Annabeth with him.

The Hunters set up camp and Percy was invited to come and have a talk with Artemis, goddess of the hunt, who appears in the form of a girl around the age of 12. She asks Percy to restate what Dr. Thorn mentioned and concludes that dangerous times were near. She decided to hunt a powerful monster, one that has the power to bring down the gods and Olympus. Before she goes alone to do so, Zoë is placed in charge of the Hunters and has to stay at Camp Half-Blood until Artemis returns. While they're still at camp outside, Bianca chooses to join the Hunters and attain immortality and a new family, along with forswearing romantic love forever, while leaving Nico in the trust of those at Camp Half-Blood.

Thalia Attempts to Drive
The group receives a ride from Artemis's brother Apollo who lets them use the sun chariot, with Thalia at the wheel. The combination results in a gut-wrenching experience for the group because Thalia is scared of heights and the sun chariot can fly. But at last, they arrive at Camp Half-Blood (in the canoe lake). Percy and Thalia lead Nico for a conversation with Mr. D and Chiron. The two are quickly forbidden to carry out any rescue plans they have for Annabeth, with Dionysus stating that there was a small chance that she would survive.

Percy's Latest Dreams
Chiron announces that a "friendly" game of Capture the Flag was going to be held against the hunters, as it's a tradition at Camp Half-Blood. Percy returns to his cabin to learn that his father has installed a fountain for him, filled with golden drachma within to remind to keep in touch with his family. Percy sends an Iris message to Tyson, only to learn that the Princess Andromeda is being protected by old spirits and that it was headed to the Panama Canal.

Percy soon has a dream in which Luke tricks Annabeth into holding up the sky, the former burden of Atlas. Percy tells Grover of his dream, only to learn of the possibility that Annabeth was considering joining the Hunters. Percy attempts to seek help from the Oracle, but the Oracle doesn't respond. Later, after a humiliating defeat in Capture the Flag by the Hunters, Percy and Thalia were about to come to arms when Percy sees the Oracle walking toward Zoë. It was astounding as, according to Chiron, the Oracle never left the attic of the Big House.

The Hunters, Demigods and a Satyr team up
A discussion is held about who is to go on the quest. It was decided that Zoë, Thalia, Bianca, Grover and Phoebe would go, leaving Percy protesting. When asked whether his determination was due to Annabeth, Percy hesitates. In the end, the decision was final and there was nothing he could do to change it. Chiron tries to comfort him. Percy then sends an Iris message to his mother, and finds her chatting with Paul Blofis, her new boyfriend. In the end, Sally encourages Percy to do what he thinks is right.

Later, Percy has another dream, in which Artemis takes Annabeth's place holding the sky to save her from likely death. In the dream, the General tells Luke to kill Annabeth, but Luke convinces the General to let him keep her alive until winter solstice, as further bait. Percy awakes to be called by Blackjack, a pegasus, to rescue a marine cow-like creature called the Ophiotaurus, whom Percy names Bessie, not knowing what it is, thinking it's a girl, and not knowing its true power.

Upon his return, Percy finds Nico eavesdropping on the Hunters. Using Annabeth's Yankees cap, he turned himself invisible and learns that Phoebe is bedridden due to a prank the Stoll brothers pulled. He quickly stops Nico, who was attempting to follow his sister on the quest (which Percy figures out after the conversation between the hunters). Percy promises Nico that he would try to protect Bianca, before taking off on Blackjack and following the group.

The Smithsonian
They stop at a museum after many hours and from a distance Percy sees Dr. Thorn confirming that Annabeth is alive and that his dream had been true. Dr. Thorn does not go into the museum with the rest of them, and instead goes somewhere else. Percy follows, and soon he sees the General and Luke. There the General creates kittens, and fires the foolish mortal who brought him cat teeth. He finally gets the right teeth, which are used to create skeletal warriors, which are almost impossible to destroy, by putting dinosaur teeth, which are really dragon teeth, into soil and casting a spell. Their original purpose was to kill Zoe and Bianca. The General was about to give them a cloth to get the Hunters' scent when Percy grabs it. However, the skeletons tear a chunk out of Percy's sleeve and inhale his scent, making him their target.

Percy quickly escapes using Annabeth's Yankee cap and notifies the others. Though the group (Zoë in particular) was rather surprised and angry to realize he had followed them, they are interrupted when the Nemean lion attacks. Nothing is able to pierce its armor, much to the displeasure of the group. However, Percy discovers a weakness and has an idea to expose it. He finds astronaut food in a gift shop and throws them into the Nemean lion's mouth. It causes the creature to expose his mouth long enough for Zoë to finish him off with an arrow.

Zoë then gives Percy the trophy of the lion pelt, saying that he was the one who defeated the lion fair and square, even though she was the one who shot the killing arrow. The skeleton warriors, disguised by The Mist as gray security men, are now following Percy, but Zoë refuses to leave him behind as she realizes that he is the fifth quest member. They soon reach an area called Sun West line after taking many trains to lose their followers. There, they meet a homeless person and share his fire, who little do they know is Apollo.

Junkyard of the Gods
Percy soon encounters Apollo again when they get on a train headed west. Apollo advises him to seek out Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea. Percy soon had a dream, in which he is given the sword Anaklusmos by a girl. Unbeknownst to him, he is in fact seeing through the eyes of Hercules and the girl he later realizes was Zoë Nightshade.

With help from Apollo, they reach a small town in New Mexico. There they are surrounded by the skeletal warriors and Grover faints as Pan's presence hits him. Following that, the skeletons surround them, using handguns. Though Percy deflects a bullet and cuts down a skeleton warrior, it immediately forms back together, reassembling itself. Somehow, though, Bianca defeats a warrior, stabbing it right in the chest, her knife blasting it to flames. However, this does not stop another from shooting at Percy. Miraculously, Percy survives and discovers that the Nemean Lion pelt he wears is bulletproof. Grover then senses Pan's presence again and a wild gift from him, the Erymanthian boar, a giant boar, comes and temporarily defeats the skeletal warriors and carries them further on to San Francisco. It takes them to the Junkyard of the Gods, and Percy meets Ares and talks to Aphrodite, at which point it is hinted that Annabeth and Percy will most likely have a romantic future. She also tells him that he will have a 'tragic love life'. Eventually, the group enters the junkyard (located near Gila Claw, Arizona), where Bianca tries to steal something, a MythoMagic action figure for her younger brother, but she awakens a defective Talos and enters via a maintenance hole in his left foot to destroy him. She succeeds in destroying the prototype Talos, but is electrocuted when Talos crashes into electric lines, causing him to short-circuit and crash to the ground. When failing to find her, Grover tearfully announces that the next stage in the prophecy has been fulfilled: Bianca di Angelo died in the desert, the land without rain. Its bad enough that one of them has been lost, but now they are in bigger trouble with the skeletal warriors- it was only because of Bianca that they are dealing with 11 skeletal warriors instead of 12.

The Hoover Dam
Finding a truck in the junkyard, Thalia drives until they reach a river. There, the group canoes to the Hoover Dam. They are attacked by the 11 remaining skeletal warriors (but not before making some 'dam' jokes) and Percy for one second thinks that one of the Skeletal soldiers is behind him and blindly slashes at a mortal girl who can see through the Mist, named Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Because she is mortal, the blade passes right through her, as if it's an illusion. She saves Percy by confusing the skeletons, allowing Percy and his friends to escape. The group gets trapped on the dam but they fly off on giant angel statues built for Zeus by Athena.

Reaching San Francisco, Percy wrestles Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, and learns Bessie the Ophiotaurus is the monster they seek, for burning its entrails will give them power to destroy Olympus. Grover takes Bessie back to camp with the help of Poseidon after Thalia is enticed to wield the Ophiotaurus' power by Dr. Thorn, who attacks them on the pier. They manage to get an Iris message to Camp Half Blood and see Dionysus, the camp director. He saves them after Percy reluctantly asks for help.

Percy takes the Titan's Curse
They go to see Annabeth's father, Frederick Chase, to ask for help and he lends them his car, which cannot be returned to him as it explodes due to a lightning bolt that Kronos threw to make Thalia angry at her father. They climb to the Garden of the Hesperides, where Zoe meets her sisters and is poisoned by the dragon, Ladon. They continue to the place where Atlas used to hold up the sky, and they see Artemis taking on his burden. Annabeth is bound and gagged by Luke and Atlas. Realizing that the prophecy made by the Oracle involved him, Percy takes the burden of the Titan's curse from Artemis. In the ensuing fight, Atlas kills his daughter by throwing her against rocks; she is later turned into the constellation "The Huntress" by Artemis. Artemis kicks Atlas back under the weight of the sky as only a Titan can be forced to bear the sky, the impact pushes Percy backwards and the sky smashes Atlas' back before he struggles to his knees. In a battle between Thalia and Luke, Luke falls into a chasm; Percy assumes that Luke is dead, but it's confirmed by Poseidon that the traitorous demigod had survived. They go to Mount Olympus via pegasi, including Blackjack.

The Winter Solstice
When Percy, Thalia and Annabeth arrived, the gods had already started the meeting. Thalia chose to be in Zoë's place as the Hunters' lieutenant so that she will not turn to 16 and she will not be the child of the prophecy. Ares and Athena suggested that the gods should kill Percy because he will be the next child of the prophecy after 2 years. But fortunately, many of the gods voted not to kill him. Poseidon also vouched for Bessie, the Ophiotaurus. He will keep it in Mount Olympus. After partying with the gods, they go back to camp. Percy told Nico about Bianca's death and gave him the figurine of Hades, which Bianca found in the junkyard of Hephaestus. Nico tells Percy that he hates him for not saving his sister and starts to run away. Percy figures out that Nico's father was Hades after 4 skeletal warriors appear and Nico unintentionally splits the earth to swallow them up. The remaining 7 skeletons are never seen again in the rest of the series. While Percy discusses this with Annabeth, Grover arrives, claiming he heard Pan in his mind saying "I await you" while drinking coffee.

Prophecy
In the third book of the series, The Titan's Curse, Zoe Nightshade is given a prophecy as follows:

Five shall go west to the goddess in chains, One shall be lost in the land without rain,  The bane of Olympus shows the trail, Campers and Hunters combined prevail, The Titan's curse must one withstand,  And one shall perish by a parent's hand.

Unraveling the Prophecy

 * 1) The group consisting of Zoë, Thalia, Grover, Bianca di Angelo, and Percy go west to find Artemis who was the goddess in chains.
 * 2) Bianca sacrificed herself in the Junkyard of the Gods, which is located in the Southwestern U.S. desert region, to save the group against the Talos prototype.
 * 3) They followed the Ophiotaurus, which was the Bane of Olympus because of its power.
 * 4) The group that took the quest consisted of three campers and two hunters.
 * 5) Percy (along with Annabeth and Luke) withstood the Titan Atlas's curse of holding up the sky.
 * 6) Zoë was killed by her father, the Titan Atlas after being poisoned by their dragon, Ladon.

Chapter list

 * 1) My Rescue Operation Goes Very Wrong
 * 2) The Vice Principal Gets a Missile Launcher
 * 3) Bianca di Angelo Makes a Choice
 * 4) Thalia Torches New England
 * 5) I Place an Underwater Phone Call
 * 6) An Old Dead Friend Comes to Visit
 * 7) Everybody Hates Me but the Horse
 * 8) I Make a Dangerous Promise
 * 9) I Learn How to Grow Zombies
 * 10) I Break a Few Rocket Ships
 * 11) Grover Gets a Lamborghini
 * 12) I Go Snowboarding with a Pig
 * 13) We Visit the Junkyard of the Gods
 * 14) I Have a Dam Problem
 * 15) I Wrestle Santa's Evil Twin
 * 16) We Meet the Dragon of Eternal Bad Breath
 * 17) I Put on a Few Million Extra Pounds
 * 18) A Friend Says Good-bye
 * 19) The Gods Vote How to Kill Us
 * 20) I Get a New Enemy for Christmas
 * 21) (Preview of The Battle Of The Labyrinth)

Characters

 * Percy Jackson - 14 years old, son of Poseidon; he is the main protagonist and narrator in the whole series.


 * Thalia Grace - 15 years old, daughter of Zeus. Thalia is described as looking very punk-rock, with black clothes, chains, and eyeliner. Thalia is a lot like Percy and they often butt heads. She is also afraid of heights, which Percy finds ironic as her father is Zeus is Lord of the Sky. She replaces Zoë Nightshade as the lieutenant for the Hunters of Artemis so that the Great Prophecy lands on Percy and not her.


 * Annabeth Chase - 14 years old, daughter of Athena, and Percy's true love (according to Aphrodite).


 * Grover Underwood - A large-hearted satyr, whose favorite foods are aluminum cans and cheese enchiladas. He wants to look for Pan, the satyr god of nature and the wild, who fell into a "deep sleep" due to the humans' pollution of the world. He's a main character in the book.


 * Nico di Angelo - Half-Blood son of Hades; 10 years old but he is really 80 years old. He and his sister Bianca were trapped in the Lotus Hotel and Casino. He has black hair, dark eyes, and olive-toned skin. He also is slightly obsessed with a battle-based card game called "Mythomagic"Images_Nico.jpg


 * Bianca di Angelo - Half-Blood daughter of Hades; 12 years old, but really is 82 years old. She and her brother Nico were trapped in Lotus Hotel and Casino. She joined the Hunters of Artemis, but was killed in the quest to save Artemis. Her death greatly upsets Nico, who is quick to blame Percy.


 * Luke Castellan - Son of Hermes, betrayed his father and turned to Kronos.

Immortals

 * Chiron - A centaur that will live for as long as he is needed to teach, trainer of demigods, assistant director of Camp Half Blood. Chiron is a son of Kronos. Chiron almost dies in a myth.


 * Dionysus - God of wine, disgruntled director of Camp Half-Blood, He intentionally never gets anyone's name correct. (He calls Percy Peter Johnson and Annabeth Annie-Bell)


 * Kronos - A corrupted Titan, condemned to Tartarus. He is being resurrected through a gold sarcophagus. He is not only the father of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, but Chiron as well.


 * Zeus- King of the gods, Lord of the sky, Thalia's father.


 * Poseidon - God of the Sea; He has black hair and green-sea eyes, Percy's father. Described as taking the form of a man in khaki shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and nautical hat.


 * Hades - God and Ruler of the Underworld.


 * Ares - God of War. Ares puts a curse on Percy. "When you need it most, your sword will fail you." This curse takes effect at the end of The Titan's Curse when he battles on Mt. Tam.


 * Aphrodite - Goddess of love and Beauty.


 * Apollo - God of the Sun, medicine, and prophecy. He drives a sun vehicle that, though is most often a Maserati Spyder, can change with the push of a button. Apollo had recently traveled to Japan, and creates terrible haikus often.


 * Artemis - She saves Percy and his friends from Dr. Thorn but Annabeth is captured by Dr. Thorn. She later sends the hunters on Camp Half-Blood while she goes on hunting on the Ophiotaurus alone and is kidnapped in the process. The quest is for her and Annabeth to be rescued. She later declares Percy and his companions, heroes in the Olympus.


 * Atlas - The Titan that once held up the sky, father of Zoë Nightshade, General of the Titans. He got trapped under the sky again by Percy Jackson and Artemis. The book's main antagonist.


 * Zoë Nightshade - Daughter of Atlas, Zoë is the oldest member of the Hunters of Artemis (has led the hunt for 2,000 years) and a lieutenant to boot. She is over hundreds of years old, but still looks approximately 14 due to her immortality. She gets turned into a constellation by Artemis when she dies, so that she would forever live in the stars and be honored by the world.

Monsters

 * Dr. Thorn - A manticore who works for Kronos. He has a French accent and his eyes are different colors.


 * Bessie the Ophiotaurus - A male, mistakenly named Bessie by Percy, who originally thought he was female. He is a legendary creature with the front half of a brown baby cow and the back end of a serpent. He becomes attached to Percy after being saved from a fishing net. It is said that whoever sacrifices the Ophiotaurus and burns the entrails as an offering will have the power to destroy Olympus.


 * Skeleton Warriors - The Skeleton Warriors are monsters who were formed from ancient Dragon teeth by Atlas.


 * Nemean Lion - The lion that Hercules slayed as one of his tasks. Once slain, its pelt becomes a coat protecting the wearer from harm.


 * Erymanthian Boar - The Erymanthian Boar is an animal sent as a gift from Pan.


 * Talos - A smaller version of Hephaestus' Talos.


 * Ladon - The dragon that guards the Golden apples. Percy described his body "as thick as a booster rocket, glinting with coppery scales. He had more heads than I could count, as if a hundred deadly pythons had been fused together. He appeared to be asleep. The heads lay curled in a big spaghetti-like mound on the grass, all the eyes closed." Ladon was supposedly raised by Zoe as she was cooing to him saying "It's me, my little dragon, Zoe has come back. I used to feed thee by hand. Do you still like lamb's meat?" Ladon is also very fast and agile. He is precise when attacking as shown when he snaps Zoe's side and poisons her.

Deaths

 * Bianca di Angelo - Sacrificed herself to defeat Talos, a giant robot forged by Hephaestus. Talos was brought to life when Bianca took a Mythomagic figurine for her brother Nico, which depicted their father, Hades.
 * Zoë Nightshade - The Lieutenant of the Hunters. Killed by her father Atlas after being poisoned from a bite from Ladon, the dragon of the Hesperides' garden.

Trivia

 * The Titan's Curse is the only book in which a date is paired up with the day of the week (December 21 2007 was a Friday).
 * The "Dam" joke is mentioned again in The Mark of Athena.