| “ | Never fear a storm, Jason, it's your father saying that he loves you. | ” |
–Beryl, to Jason during his early childhood | ||
Beryl Grace was an unstable, alcoholic TV star and mortal mother of Thalia and Jason Grace through Zeus/Jupiter.
History[]
Early Life[]
Beryl Grace was an actress with drinking problems. She would constantly perform stunts to make sure that she was always in the tabloids.
Zeus: Birth of Thalia[]
Zeus, her lover.
Beryl attracted the attention of dated Zeus during the eighties, when she was a TV starlet and the pair started dating. Beryl was pleased that she got the attention of the King of the Gods and felt she was at the top of the world. However, this only fueled her ego. Their relationship resulted in the birth of a girl she named Thalia. However, the King of the Gods eventually had to leave Beryl and their daughter to return to his duties on Olympus.
Beryl was unable to accept it because she felt like the ultimate achievement for her to attract the King of the Gods. This blow to her ego caused her to turn to alcohol even more and pull stupid stunts, leading to her life and career being ruined. As a result, Beryl was unable to have a healthy relationship with her daughter.
Jupiter: Birth of Jason[]
Six years after Thalia was born, Zeus returned to Beryl in his Roman form Jupiter, which Thalia thought was because he felt bad about ruining Beryl's life. However, according to Hera, the true reason Beryl managed to snare Zeus' affections a second time was because she imagined him in his Roman aspect.
Jupiter stayed for a while and Beryl improved her behavior, loving the attention he gave her. The two had another child, much to Juno's anger. In order to appease the goddess, Jupiter decided to name his new son Jason after Juno's favorite hero. Beryl had not agreed with the choice of name initially, but was forced to give in at Jupiter's insistence. However, Jupiter eventually left Beryl and his children again. Thalia believed it was because he could no longer tolerate Beryl's constant demands to either let her visit Olympus, make her immortal or eternally beautiful.
Raising her Children[]
Thalia and Jason Grace, her children.
When Zeus/Jupiter left for good, Beryl became increasingly unstable, blaming Hera for the monsters who had started attacking Thalia and claiming that Hera was coming for Jason as well. Thalia confessed that she didn't know whether or not to believe her mother and had only stayed with her because she didn't trust Beryl to look after Jason properly.
Two years after Jason was born, Beryl took the family on a vacation near the Wolf House. She told Thalia to go get the picnic basket from the car. While she was gone, Beryl offered Jason up to Juno as a peace offering. When Thalia returned, Beryl claimed to Thalia that Jason was as good as dead as she cried on the stone steps. Thalia thought her mother had finally lost her mind and searched for her brother until Beryl eventually dragged her away, kicking and screaming. Thalia eventually called the police on her own mother, leading to Beryl being questioned for a long time, but she was ultimately not arrested. Beryl then turned on Thalia, claiming she had betrayed her. The mother and daughter argued a lot before Thalia ran away from home.
Later Life and Death[]
Beryl's life only became worse after Thalia's desertion. She eventually died in a car crash two years before Thalia was purged from her tree by the Golden Fleece. Beryl was drunk the night of the crash and hadn't been thinking straight.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians[]
The Lightning Thief[]
Beryl is mentioned when Grover tells Percy about Thalia's story.
The Demigod Files[]
The Sword of Hades[]
Thalia, Percy Jackson, and Nico di Angelo are in the Underworld on a mission for Persephone to recover Hades' stolen sword. When traveling through the Fields of Asphodel, Percy guesses that Thalia is looking around at the faces to find her mother (or she could have been searching for Jason too, as at that time she thought that he was dead). Melinoe appears to Thalia as Beryl, yelling at her for abandoning her. Thalia is shocked by this and protests that it was her mother who had abandoned her. Percy manages to destroy the illusion by out-smarting Melinoe, but Thalia is very shaken up from the experience.
The Last Olympian[]
When Prometheus called Thalia by her full name, Thalia Grace, she claimed "That's my mother's surname. I don't use it," further indicating that she was on bad terms with her mother. Percy was surprised at learning Thalia's last name, having never wondered about it and stating that it made her seem almost normal.
The Heroes of Olympus[]
The Lost Hero[]
Hera, whom Beryl turned her son Jason over to.
When Thalia is reunited with her brother, Jason, she explains what happened the day he disappeared and mentions why she had run away from their mother. Thalia also tells him how Beryl died two years before she was cured and awoken through the Golden Fleece.
The House of Hades[]
Beryl is briefly mentioned by Jason when he was thinking about his father.
The Blood of Olympus[]
Shortly after Jason departs from the House of Hades, his nightmares become much worse, but the one with Hera and Beryl is the worst of all; after Jason dies from seeing Hera's divine form, he sees himself as a toddler once again, and his mother kneels beside him and promises to see him again soon. Jason longs for her ghost to stop tormenting him. During the feast at Odysseus Palace, Beryl appears to Jason, telling him she meant to come back to him but was forbidden by Juno and Jupiter to see her son again. Jason asks why she was at the feast, to which Beryl proclaims that she wanted life, youth, and beauty but was abandoned by Olympus and Zeus. However, Beryl remarks that she thinks of Jason as her proud warrior. Jason works out that his mother is actually a mania, a spirit of insanity that she had been reduced to at her death and afterwards. At this, Beryl wants her son to come back to her and that they can be a family together, but Jason refuses, and proclaims that he is no child of hers. To this (and the Greek sign of warding evil that Jason saw), Beryl disappears with a hiss or sigh of relief.
The Trials of Apollo[]
The Burning Maze[]
Piper McLean tells Apollo and Meg McCaffrey about Beryl, as they go to ask for Jason's help.
Appearance[]
In the eighties, Beryl was described to be a tall, beautiful woman with a "big poofy hairdo" blonde hairstyle and blue eyes.
In The Sword of Hades, Percy described her as a tall woman with disheveled blonde hair and a stern disapproving face.
In The Blood of Olympus, Jason described Beryl as having hair that was an over-teased corona of dyed blonde curls, blue eyes that gleamed with fractured light, and a scent of lemons and aerosol. The worry lines around her eyes and the pained tightness in her mouth reminded Jason of Thalia. Beryl was dressed in a flowery green-and-red wraparound like the skirt of a Christmas tree, and had colorful plastic bangles on her wrists.
Personality[]
Beryl was an extremely selfish person with a constant craving for attention and a ceaseless desire to gain more than what she had already acquired out of an advantageous situation. Even before she met Zeus, she already had serious problems such as drinking and constantly performing stunts to ensure her fame. After she attracted a god, she felt like she had made some kind of grand achievement and her ego grew uncontrollably. Hence, when Zeus left, Beryl was unable to accept it and her flaws worsened.
When Zeus returned as Jupiter, Beryl relished in the attention he gave her and improved until he left once again, causing her downward spiral towards her children. When Thalia called the police on her after Jason vanished, Beryl turned on Thalia, believing she had betrayed her own mother instead of agreeing it was the right choice. Her bad habits eventually lead to her death in a car accident as she had been drinking.
Relationships[]
Love Interest []
Zeus/Jupiter[]
At some point, Zeus met Beryl and fell in love with her. Their relationship resulted in the birth of Thalia despite Zeus having sworn on the River Styx not to sire any more children with mortals. He left Beryl to attend to his duties at Olympus and she was unable to accept it.
Seven years after Thalia was born, Zeus returned to Beryl (this time in his Roman form, Jupiter) and sired a Roman demigod named Jason. Unfortunately, Zeus left Beryl again, which made her even more mentally unstable.
Children[]
Thalia Grace, her daughter.
As revealed in The Lost Hero, Thalia never had a good relationship with her mother. They constantly argued, given that Beryl was always drunk and acted like a spoiled child. Thalia only stayed with Beryl as she didn't trust her to look after her younger brother properly. After Beryl became increasingly unstable and gave Jason away, Thalia ran away from home permanently after a final bitter argument with her mother.
Despite their strained relationship, Thalia felt some level of grief upon learning about her mother's death. In the Sword of Hades, Percy realized that she had been somewhat looking for her mother's spirit, as she didn't have the chance to say goodbye, but the encounter with Melinoe (who was masquerading as Beryl to Thalia) showed that she was still extremely bitter towards her mother for her emotional abandonment. In The Last Olympian, Thalia snapped at Prometheus for addressing her as "Thalia Grace", given that she didn't use her mother's surname.
Jason Grace, her son.
Etymology[]
- Beryl is a Greek give name derived from the light green gemstones of the same name.
- Grace is a surname of English origin.
Trivia[]
- Hera accidentally called herself Beryl in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods instead of Beroe.
- Beryl is the only character to have been both mentioned in the first book of the first series and appear in the last book of the second series, where her name is finally revealed.
- Beryl is the only known mortal to parent both a Greek and a Roman demigod.
- Even though Beryl is mentioned multiple times in both series, her first actual appearance is in The Blood of Olympus, since the ghost in The Sword of Hades is Melinoe in disguise, not the real Beryl.