User blog comment:SayuriDarling/The Mark of Athena Official Discussion/@comment-218.186.15.10-20121002140535/@comment-188.67.220.110-20121028165553

I liked the way Annabeth made Arachne weave her own jail in the end. Plus the all 'wisdom's daughter walks alone' - not just without friends but without any kind of magical help, and the way *Combat* was hardly ever the answer. I think she had to go trough this trial to feel confident but not proud.

And for the whole 'brain-child' business... I wonder if Rick Riordan is avoiding the explanation by making the only characrers who know uncofortable about it? But the idea of being 'born from thoughts' - why do I think of 'mental' heirs? Like Leo might be that to Archimedes. The ultimate 'learning' and following in that someone's footsteps.

Or maybe it's about Platon's theory of ideas .. Except that Athena as a goddess has the power to make this ideas real in physical sense too. Create, that is... (isn't that what you do with arts and crafts anyway, create?)