Zoë Nightshade



"Stars, I can see the stars again, my lady."

- Zoe

Zoë Nightshade was a Huntress of Artemis, and a daughter of the Titan Atlas and the goddess Pleione. She formerly was a Hesperide, but later she was exiled. She became the loyal lieutenant of Lady Artemis, before Thalia Grace.

She was turned into a constellation by Artemis in The Titan's Curse; called "The Huntress".

History
Once she served in The Garden of the Hesperides, but she was exiled by her sisters after helping Hercules trick Atlas. She gave Hercules her hair pin (a gift from her mother Pleione) that extends into Anaklusmos (Riptide), a powerful sword which Percy Jackson now wields (now disguised as a pen). Eventually, she joined Artemis' Huntresses, and became their lieutenant to get away from men like Hercules. She holds a grudge against male heroes, for Hercules gave her no credit for her clever plan for him to complete his quest on Mount Othrys.

She once ran into Thalia Grace, Luke Castellan, and Annabeth Chase when they were wandering around the country, and almost convinced Thalia to join them, but Thalia did not want to leave Luke. This made Zoë very angry. She told Thalia she was being stupid, that she would regret it, and that Luke would let her down. (This turned out to be true for a while.)

The Titan's Curse
Zoë and the Hunters rescue Percy Jackson, Thalia Grace, Grover Underwood, and Bianca and Nico di Angelo from a manticore Dr. Thorn who disappeared with Annabeth Chase. She convinced Bianca to join the hunters and accompanied her 'sisters' to Camp Half-Blood. The Hunters won the match of Capture the Flag when The Oracle left the attic and approached Zoë for a quest to save Artemis, who had gone missing.

Zoë went on the doomed quest along with Thalia, Bianca, and Grover, but could not bring Phoebe, another Hunter, as planned; Percy followed them secretly, wanting to make sure that Annabeth is found safe and sound, having also promised Nico that he will keep Bianca, his sister, safe. Zoë is furious with Percy but he warns them that a Nemean lion and a dozen skeletal warriors are on their way.

They all fight against the lion, and Zoë manages to kill it with some of her arrows, but she lets Percy keep the pelt necause it was his plan that gave Zoë the opening to kill it. She then says the first joke Percy had ever heard her say: "It was thy ice-cream sandwich that did it," referring to the astronaut food from the Smithsonian gift shop, which Percy force-fed the lion with.

They continue their quest, going west to find Artemis. Zoë is very worried about the goddess, and anxious to find her. They get help from Apollo, but giving them transportation is all he can do.

While in the desert, going through Hephaestus' junkyard, a prototype and defective version of Talos attacks them, and Bianca is killed while subduing the automaton. Zoë feels guilty over Bianca's death, which is understandable, as Zoë picked an amateur Hunter who was only twelve for a suicide mission. She believed that Bianca had potential to replace her, as Zoe couldn't be the lietenant forever. Percy tries to comfort Zoë after Bianca's death, and later dreams from Hercules' point of view of his relationship and betrayal of Zoë.

Percy later gives up the Nemean Lion pelt as a sacrifice to his father, Poseidon, to keep Grover and Bessie the Ophiotaurus safe on their journey to Olympus, and tells Zoë that he is nothing like Hercules.

To reach Artemis, they are forced to go through The Garden of Hesperides. There, Zoë encounters her sisters who disowned her, and tells them that they never had the courage, shouts and wakes Ladon. The dragon, after a while, sensed Zoë wasn't really who she "used to be" and almost killed her. However, when the dragon attempted to kill Zoë, she dodged but was still hit in the side. The dragon's teeth were venomous, one of the main reasons for her death.

They found Artemis holding up the sky which she had taken from Annabeth. The General, Atlas, was revealed to be Zoë's father. Percy took Artemis's burden, and Zoë, in her attempts at keeping Atlas from destroying, was knocked aside by her father, causing massive internal injuries and big emotional injures. She becomes very ill and looses the will to live because her father's blow caused her too much pain. When she died, Artemis turned her into a star constellation, "the Huntress", in the Southern sky. The form of the stars was her shooting a arrow.

The Battle of the Labyrinth
She does not appear, obviously, but her constellation is shining in the night sky, mentioned when Percy is telling Calypso on Ogygia, another daughter of Atlas, that he met who was another of daughter of Atlas and she was one of the "bravest people he had ever met."

Personality
"He was all the things I'd originally disliked about Zoë, with none of the good I'd come to appreciate."

- Percy

Zoë seems to be a loyal lieutenant to Artemis, never wavering in over 2000 years. In The Titan's Curse, Zoë fights with Thalia quite often. This is because (before the books) Thalia had refused to join the Hunters. However, she eventually changes her mind, influenced no doubt by Zoe and Bianca's bravery. Zoë has a extreme hatred of campers, especially males, but eventually warmed up to Percy during their quest to save Artemis. Throughout when Zoë is mentioned and when she talks, Zoë speaks Old English. She is said to speak in a strange accent more heavily when she is upset. She shows an interest in stars. That trait would probably come from being immortal. She is offended when Percy says Ursa Major was "The bear thing" and Percy tells her she acts like it was real. She does seem irritated when Thalia corrects her speech, saying "I hate this language! It changes too often!" She also has some of her father's traits.

In the beginning, she seems aloof and unfriendly, but she turns out to have a big heart and endless loyalty to her lady Artemis, goddess of the moon (replacing Selene), maidens, hunt. Deep down Zoë was loyal and kind. She risks her life to save Percy, despite her initial dislike and despite knowing that the line in the prophecy saying "One shall perish by a parent's hand" was about her. With her dying breaths she told Percy, "You spoke the truth. You are nothing like... like Hercules. I am honored that you carry this sword" (referring to the fact that she used to own Riptide).

Finally, in the end, Zoë's legacy remains as her persuasion seemed to come through and Thalia declares that she will join the Hunt, to forsake men like Luke and not be the demigod in The Great Prophecy.

Abilities

 * Immortality due to being one of Artemis's Hunters (except she died in battle) as well as being a full-blooded Titan.
 * Expert archer.
 * Highly skilled Hunter.
 * Leadership skills.
 * Can make a bow appear when she wants.
 * Perhaps more powerful, unseen powers as she is the daughter of Atlas.
 * Zoë might posess some form of hydrokinetic abilities,as her mother Pleione is a minor sea goddess.

Weaknesses

 * Can die if beaten in battle or if her immortality is revoked, whether forced or voluntary.
 * Is reluctant to accept help from men and campers from Camp Half-Blood.
 * Protective of her Hunters (shown in The Titan's Curse when she refused to take another Hunter on her quest when Phoebe got poisoned by the centaur blood T-shirt in fear of losing another Hunter).

Physical description
Zoë is described by Percy as having has long, silky black hair, caramel-like skin, a silver circlet around her head, a slightly upturned nose and black eyes like volcanic rocks. She gives off the aura of royalty, and makes Percy feel awkward around her by the glares she gives him (similar to the ones her father, Atlas gives). She is tall, very graceful and in Percy's point of view she is very beautiful and follows some of her father's traits.

Debatable Species
There is some confusion about Zoë's race. She is the daughter of a Titan and a sea goddess, and has immortal sisters. If she were a Titan or a sea goddess, she would not be able to be killed by her father, but Rick Riordan says that when she was disowned she lost her immortality. She regained her infinite longevity when she joined the Hunt, but she could now be killed, and eventually she was. A similar case is with the son of Poseidon and Gaia, Antaeus. Being a mortal daughter of a Titan, she may be the only known example of a Demititan in history, the Titan version of a Half Blood, of which none have been explictably shown in the series, other than possibly herself (However, it is known that the Titan Helios had at least one Demititan son in ancient myth).

Trivia

 * In The Titan's Curse, Percy has a dream about Zoë's past. In the dream, Zoë claims that her mother is Pleione, but in the myths the mother of the Hesperides is Hesperius.
 * Her name is of Greek origin, and the meaning is "life" or "full of life"
 * She is known to speak an older form of English (e.g. instead of saying you, she says thee). She openly admits that she hates English, because "the language changes too much." However, this can also cause some humor for the quest members, as when they visited Hoover Dam, she says, "Very well. Let us find the dam snack bar," clearly oblivious to the humor of this. Thus, Percy, Grover, and Thalia start making jokes by talking like she did, putting the word 'dam' in front of everything they wanted to see.
 * Interestingly, she says that her last name is Nightshade, although back in Ancient Greece, no one had a last name, so it is likely a fake name used to fool mortals.