PJO Magazine Issue #14 - December 2016

06 | Quote of the Month

This month's theme is Christmas. I was flipping through my collection of Percy Jackson books when I found this particular quote. I know it only has some of the theme mentioned but it said Christmas and it was rather amusing to me. I gave a light chuckle and decided to use this quote. This quote stood out to me particularly the first sentence of the quote.
"Christmas in the Underworld was NOT my idea.
If I'd known what was coming, I would've called in sick. I could've avoided an army of demons, a fight with a Titan, and a trick that almost got my friends and me cast into eternal darkness.
But no, I had to take my stupid English exam."
Demigod Files ( Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades) by Rick Riordian
I will honestly say I don't think anyone first thought is let's have Christmas in the Underworld. I completely agree with Percy when he says that spent Christmas in the Underworld was not his idea. It wouldn't be my idea either. If anyone had known something like that was coming I would hope they would call in sick too.
The Underworld is where the souls of the dead go when they die. The Underworld is divided into a variety of sections. The Judges of the Underworld decide where a soul should go based on what they did when they were alive. In Ancient Greece, a king named Rhadamanthus judged the dead. He was later joined by King Aeacus and King Midas. There is a select group of judges that rotate regularly now. The Underworld is currently located under DOA Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California.
Fighting an army of demons sounds kinda fun but actually doing so probably would not be fun. Fighting a Titan? Sounds fun at first until you read the actual fight scene between Percy and the Titan. The fight scene just makes you semi glad you were not there.
The Titans were the original rulers if the universe. The Titans came after the Protogenoi, but before the Olympians. Kronos and Rhea were the King and Queen of the Titans. The First Generation Titans were born to Gaea and Ouranos near the beginning of creation. Ouranos had earlier imprisoned his elder children, the Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires, in Tartarus because of his contempt and fear of his kin. Gaea was furious at her husband for the treatment of her sons. Gaea conspired with Kronos, the boldest of the Titans, to attack his father and punish him for his cruelty. Using a scythe, Kronos ambushed Ouranos and slashed him into thousands of pieces. Fresh from his victory, Kronos seized supremacy for his brothers and sisters with himself as their leader. He made his sister Rhea his queen and ruled for countless eons. Mankind was first created in his reign and the era was later called their "Golden Age". Like his father before him, Kronos was a corrupt tyrant along with many of the other Titans.
Later on in his reign, Kronos learned that he was destined to be overthrown and defeated by his own offspring just as he had overthrown and defeated his father. To evade his fate, Kronos devoured his five elder children before a desperate Rhea saved her sixth child, Zeus by substituting a stone for his father to consume.
Raised in secrecy, Zeus grew to adulthood and freed his siblings in order to wage war against Kronos and his subjects. After eleven years of battle, the younger immortals were made victorious and Kronos was cast down into Tartarus with those who fought beneath him. As the gods are immortal when Zeus saved them they were fully grown. Zeus used the scythe to slice Kronos into thousands of pieces just as he had done to his father.
A trick that almost got Percy and his friends cast into eternal darkness. Well eternal darkness is something I hope everyone would want to avoid. Iapetus threatens to cast Percy, Thalia, and Nico's souls into "the eternal darkness of Tartarus".
Iapetus is known as Japetus or Bob. He is the Titan of mortal life, the brother of Kronos, the father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius by Clymene. He is mostly known as the Titan of Mortality, Pain, and Violent Death; Titan Lord of the West; The Piercer; and Bob.
Iapetus was the fifth son born to Gaea and Ouranos the personifications of the earth and sky. The Titans were the eldest of the three races born to Gaea the Earth and Ouranos the Sky, before the Hekatonkheires (Cottus, Gyges, and Briares) and the Elder Cyclopes (Arges, Brontes, and Steropes). All were hated by their father, but he detested the younger children so much mainly for their ugliness, that he imprisoned them in the abyss of Tartarus, which was itself deep within the Earth.
Furious, Gaea told her remaining twelve children, the Titans, to take the Scythe that she had forged, and avenge their brothers by overthrowing their egotistical and sadistic father. While Iapetus detested his father, he was ambivalent at the prospect of murdering him, and did not step up to take the Scythe. However, after his younger brother Kronos did, Iapetus agreed to help him in the murder, albeit reluctantly since he was silenced by Hyperion. Nonetheless, Iapetus' elder brother Oceanus, as well as his sisters Theia, Tethys, Themis, Phoebe, Mnemosyne, and Rhea all refused to participate.

While preparing to ambush his father Ouranos, Iapetus hid himself by posing as a tree (with his arms spread out). Together with his brothers Hyperion, Krios, and Koios, Iapetus held Ouranos down, after which Kronos used the Scythe to slice Ouranos into a thousand pieces and claim his supremacy over the universe. During the murder, Iapetus was kicked in the face by his thrashing father something that his brothers frequently teased him about afterwards. Right before Kronos sliced him up, Ouranos predicted that one day Kronos himself would suffer the same fate at the hands of his own child. While Hyperion, Krios, Koios, and Kronos all roared with laughter after defeating their father, Iapetus felt nauseous.
Afterwards, Kronos hurled the all of the remaining pieces of Ouranos into the sea as gesture of loathing against his brother Oceanus for not helping them slay their father. Much later, these particles would mix with the ocean spray to form Aphrodite.
I think this quote gives a little bit of a insight on a demigod Christmas. I hope you enjoyed reading. Happy Holidays!