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Don’t they seem happy, so young again.

–Hebe on middle aged patrons at her arcade in The Chalice of the Gods.

Hebe is the Greek goddess of youth, vitality and forgiveness the daughter of Zeus and Hera, and the former cupbearer of the gods. Her Roman counterpart is Juventas.

History[]

Early life[]

Zeus

Zeus, her father.

Hebe was born to Zeus and Hera, king and queen of the Olympian gods. She often played with her father's royal eagles.

Before becoming an official goddess, Hebe drew baths for her older brother Ares and helped her mother enter her chariot.

Hebe was eventually worshiped as a goddess of pardons or forgiveness. Freed prisoners would hang their chains in the sacred grove of her sanctuary at Phlius.

Cup Bearer of the Gods[]

After she decided to become the Goddess of Youth, Hebe acted as the cup bearer for the inhabitants of Mount Olympus, serving them nectar and ambrosia.

However, the less ambitious Hebe was replaced by the young Trojan prince Ganymede.

​​​​​​Hercules[]

After her half-brother Heracles was made a god, Hebe became his wife. They had two immortal children: Alexiares and Anicetus.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians[]

The Last Olympian[]

During the Battle of Manhattan, an automaton of Hebe's son, William H. Seward, fights against the Titans.

After the battle, Percy Jackson makes the Olympians promise have a cabin for all the minor gods, including Hebe.

The Chalice of the Gods[]

Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Grover Underwood come to the Hebe Jeebies to ask her about Ganymede's Chalice. She invites them for pizza. As they eat, Hebe brings up Percy's refusal of godhood and he says he wishes to grow old as it is a part of life. The group notices that the patrons singing karaoke are getting younger and Hebe reveals she shaves off a few years so that those who visit her establishment can have a slight extension on their lives. The three then ask Hebe if she has any information on missing divine objects. The goddess deduces that they are referring to Ganymede, and that he lost his chalice. However, Hebe becomes enraged when she thinks they are accusing her of stealing it. Hebe states she does not miss her old position and vanishes in an explosion of glitter, turning the three into eight-year-olds in her departure.

After the three barricade themselves in the karaoke bar after being chased by chickens, a difficult endeavor given their diapers and also the fact that Annabeth, Percy, and Grover all pooped themselves, Percy and Annabeth sing “Jealous Guy” by John Lennon in such a horrible fashion with their squeaky child voices that Hebe arrives and demands they stop their terrible singing. Annabeth begs forgiveness and the boys follow her lead. As Hebe threatens to turn them into babies to match their dirty diapers, she starts regressing into a baby herself. This is because Annabeth brought a baby chick with her, one that she stole from the chicken coop elsewhere in the Hebe Jeebies, using Hebe's own preferences against her. In their earlier conversation, Hebe revealed she's always the youngest in any given room, and with the youngest lifeform in the bar being a chick, Hebe's own divine power worked against her. Annabeth promises to get rid of the chick if Hebe reverts the three to their true ages, cleans their bottoms, gives them their proper underwear back, and gives them information on the chalice, giving the goddess the choice of nodding for agreement, or pooping her own diapers otherwise. The goddess agrees, and takes the form of a teenager once Annabeth returns the chick to the coop. She turns the three back into teenagers and cleans them up, and agrees to tell them about the chalice. Hebe states that she does not have it and suggests Iris, who hosts a farmer's market outside the Lincoln Center on Saturdays, might have it. Hebe promises to keep Ganymede's secret as she wants to see Zeus's reaction when he finds out. As the three leave, she warns them to be careful as Iris is not as forgiving as her.

The Trials of Apollo[]

The Hidden Oracle[]

Apollo mentions her when seeing her son.

Appearance[]

Hebe has brown hair set in a beehive hairdo and wears a pink and turquoise minidress with white go-go boots.

Personality[]

Hebe feels that youth should be eternal, as most people are happy when they are young. She feels that life starts at eight years old.

Juventas[]

Juventas is Hebe's Roman counterpart. As Juventas, she becomes more disciplined, militaristic, and warlike. For the Greeks, Hebe was not only the goddess of youth and the patroness of brides, but the Romans credited Juventas only for being the goddess of youth. In one hand, she carries the amphora of nectar, and with the other she presents the cup of eternal youthfulness.

Juventas constantly waits upon all the gods at their Olympian banquets, pouring out for them that elixir of eternal life. Everyday the gods drink the nectar to renew their unending youth. In Roman mythology, Juventas received a coin offering from boys when they donned the adult men's toga for the first time.

Juventas is portrayed in works of art as a charming young girl, wearing light garments adorned with roses and a wreath of flowers on her head.

Abilities[]

As a child of two Olympians (one of them a member of the Big Three), Hebe is a very powerful goddess. She is considered a minor goddess.

  • Hebekinesis: As the Goddess of Youth, Hebe has divine authority and absolute control over youth and rejuvenation.
    • Immortality Bestowal: It is possible that Hebe possesses the power to make others immortal.
    • Youth Inducement: As revealed in Heracleidae, Hebe has the power to make a person's physical state temporarily return to its younger, more vital state. She granted Iolaus' wish to become young again in order to fight Eurystheus. In The Chalice of the Gods, it is revealed she bestowed youth on her staff and customers at her establishment, Hebe Jeebies, although eight is the age that she sets a limit at and Hebe refuses to turn anyone back into babies as the goddess considers them to be disgusting. After learning that Hebe sponsors daycare centers for young satyrs, Percy Jackson suspects that her influence is what causes satyrs to age at half the speed of mortals and demigods. However, Hebe isn't immune to her own powers and can fall victim to them under the right circumstances. Due to Hebe's need to be the youngest person in the room, after being lured into a room with a baby chick, her own powers reacted to the presence of the chick and deaged Hebe back into a baby. Although Hebe should've been able to stop the process as a goddess, Percy guessed that it either caught her by surprise or making herself older went against Hebe's nature. Hebe was unable to restore her age until she made a deal with the demigods and the satyr and Grover removed Li'l Killer from the room.
    • Nostalgia Inducement: As noticed by Grover, Annabeth and Percy, Hebe can induce a powerful sense of nostalgia in whoever enters into Hebe Jeebies. With all the games, foods and activities of the establishment seemingly reminding whoever enters into it of their younger days, Hebe herself has admitted that this sense of nostalgia plays a big part in her powers over youth, admitting that the nostalgic feelings and memories she induces in mortals is what allows her to de-age them.
  • Control of Animals: Like Ganymede, Hebe has control over the sacred animals of her father Zeus, such as the royal eagles. Chickens are Hebe's sacred animals, as such she can command and control them. In The Chalice of the Gods, Hebe keeps an entire chicken coop in her establishment, Hebe Jeebies, filled with chickens and baby chicks. The chickens themselves can become very ferocious and vicious when someone displeases Hebe, with her typically using them to attack anyone who complains about the age she turns them into.

Family[]

Immortal Children[]

Partner

Children
Hercules Alexiares and Anicetus

Demigod Children[]

Partner

Children
Samuel Seward William H. Seward
Mr. Montes Paolo Montes

Etymology[]

The name Hebe comes from a Greek word meaning "youth" or "prime of life."

Trivia[]

  • Words like hebephilia and hebephernia are derived from her name.
  • 6 Hebe, a large asteroid in the Asteroid Belt, is named after her.
  • Lettuce and Ivy spring were both plants associated with Hebe.
  • A genus of purple plant is named after Hebe, with around 90 species found in New Zealand, French Polynesia, The Falkland Islands, and South America. 
  • In myths, Hebe greets heroes on their entrance into Olympus, presenting to them the cup of nectar which immediately restores them to the first bloom of youthfulness and beauty and endows them with immortality as the reward of victorious combats.
  • In art, Hebe is usually depicted wearing a sleeveless dress.
  • Juventas likewise means "youth," as can be seen in such derivatives as juvenile.
  • Her Norse counterpart is Idunn.
  • It's revealed in The Chalice of the Gods that Hebe cannot physically be in the same room as a being who is physically younger than her, as doing so will cause her to de-age rapidly.
  • It's revealed in The Chalice of the Gods that Hebe sponsors daycares for Satyrs. As a result, Percy suspects that Hebe's influence is responsible for satyrs aging at half the speed of mortals and demigods.
The Trials of Apollo
Core Series: The Hidden Oracle | The Dark Prophecy | The Burning Maze | The Tyrant's Tomb | The Tower of Nero
Main Characters: Apollo/Lester Papadopolous | Meg McCaffrey | Percy Jackson | Peaches | Leo Valdez | Calypso | Grover Underwood | Piper McLean | Jason Grace | Reyna Ramírez-Arellano | Frank Zhang | Hazel Levesque | Lavinia Asimov | Nico di Angelo | Will Solace | Rachel Elizabeth Dare
Secondary Characters: Chiron | Austin Lake | Kayla Knowles | Hemithea | Josephine | Georgina | Lityerses | Trophonius | Gleeson Hedge | Mellie | Chuck Hedge | Medea | Herophile | Crest | Don | Tyson | Ella | Tarquin | Luguselwa | Claudia | Janice | Blaise
Minor Characters: Sally Jackson | Thalia Grace | Mrs. O'Leary | Festus | Cade | Mikey | Harley | Connor Stoll | Miranda Gardiner | Cecil Markowitz | Ellis Wakefield | Sherman Yang | Damien White | Malcolm Pace | Paolo Montes | Valentina Diaz | Germani | Agamethus | Olujime | Phillip McCaffrey | Hunter Kowalski | Sssssarah | Prickly Pear | Aloe Vera | Joshua | Naevius Sutorius Macro | Incitatus | Tristan McLean | Bombilo | Aurum | Argentum | Julia | Jacob | Dakota | Poison Oak | Screech-Bling | Annabeth Chase | Elon | Mamurius Veturius | Mimi
Olympian Gods (Greek & Roman): Zeus/Jupiter | Hera/Juno | Poseidon/Neptune | Demeter/Ceres | Ares/Mars | Athena/Minerva | Apollo/Apollo (Roman) | Artemis/Diana | Hephaestus/Vulcan | Aphrodite/Venus | Hermes/Mercury | Dionysus/Bacchus | Hades/Pluto
Minor Gods: Nero | Commodus | Caligula | Iris | Britomartis | Styx | Terminus | Lupa | Terpsichore | Harpocrates | Cardea
Titans: Rhea | Leto | Mnemosyne | Helios
Monsters and Magical Creatures: Python | Nosoi | Karpos | Palikos | Myrmekes | Colossus Neronis | Blemmyae | Gryphon | Carthaginian Serpent | Scythian Dracaena | Cynocephali | Centaur | Cyclops | Yale | Satyr/Faun | Strix | Dryad | Dragon | Pandai | Eurynomos | Skeleton Warriors | Vrykolakai | Khromandae | Amphisbaena | Troglodyte | Tauri Sylvestres
Related Content: Rick Riordan | Percy Jackson and the Olympians | The Heroes of Olympus | Demigods & Magicians | Camp Half-Blood Confidential | Camp Jupiter Classified: A Probatio's Journal | Percy Jackson Demigod Collection | Un Natale Mezzosangue | The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure
The Chalice of the Gods
Book: The Chalice of the Gods
Main Characters: Percy Jackson | Annabeth Chase | Grover Underwood
Secondary Characters: Eudora | Ganymede
Minor Characters: Sally Jackson | Paul Blofis | Naomi | Barbara | Elevator Security Guard | Blanche | Lucius | Margaret | Sparky | Li'l Killer
Gods: Iris | Hebe | Elisson | Poseidon | Zeus | Demeter | Hera | Hermes | Athena | Elisson | Geras
Titans: Rhea | Kronos
Mythical Creatures: Nereid | Nymph | Horned Serpent
Related Content: Rick Riordan | Percy Jackson and the Olympians | Wrath of the Triple Goddess
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