The Dark Prophecy

“(She loves those dramatic entrances. She is such an anime-character wannabe.)”

These bracketed lines show how Apollo often breaks the fourth wall, addressing readers in an aside and thus bringing them close to his point of view. Here he dubs the goddess Britomartis as an aspiring character from anime cartoons since she likes making grand, cinematic entrances. Apollo’s reference to anime will delight young readers since it is contemporary and relevant.

“I wanted to believe Meg was rebelling against Nero. […] Unfortunately, I knew firsthand how hard it was to extricate oneself from an unhealthy relationship. Nero’s hooks were buried deep in the girl’s psyche.”

Apollo does not judge Meg for struggling to overcome Nero’s influence. As the child of a temperamental, punishing father, he knows how difficult it is to quell the need for parental approval even when the parent is cruel. Apollo’s quote highlights the text’s key motifs of abusive parenting and the complex nature of trauma. They also show that Apollo is developing human empathy since he can put himself in Meg’s shoes.

“THOU HAST GIVEN ME NOT A QUESTION BUT A STORY.”

The talking arrow of Dodona is supposed to be helpful to Apollo but is often just snarky. When Apollo recounts his visions to the arrow in the hope of an explanation, the arrow dryly wonders if Apollo is telling him a story. The humorous part here is that the arrow is supposed to be a wise magical artifact, but despite its formal, high-sounding English, it is as sarcastic as any contemporary teenager.

“Son of a Midas

You, sir, are a stupid-head

Here, have an ostrich.”

Each chapter in the book is prefaced by a badly-written haiku from Apollo. The three-line poem comments on the chapter’s action and shows that Apollo, the former god of poetry, struggles with creativity in his mortal form. This generates much humor in the text. Here, Apollo refers to Lityerses, the son of Midas, with Meg’s description of him as a “stupid-head” and the ostriches Commodus has tortured to make them extra-aggressive.

“It’s not how long you live that matters. It’s what you live for.”

Jo’s wise words to Apollo illustrate the text’s important lesson about living a meaningful life. At this point, Apollo cannot understand why Emmie and Jo would give up immortality to be with each other. Jo gently reminds him that a short, purposeful life is better than an infinite existence. Apollo’s journey in the novel revolves around realizing the truth of Jo’s words.

“You don’t have to be a god. Just do your best for your friends.”

Jo’s words to Apollo assure him that he can help his friends even without his former powers. Just doing the right thing is enough. Apollo often feels his existence as a mortal is inferior; these lines tell him there is far more to Apollo than his divinity and immortality.

“Ever since my famous battle with Python, I’ve had a phobia of scaly reptilian creatures. (Especially if you include my stepmother, Hera. BOOM!).”

The novel’s author frequently juxtaposes dangerous situations with humorous commentary to dispel the tension. When Apollo sees a great snake in the sewer water outside the entrance to the palace of Commodus, he is scared but not so scared that it stops him from making a joke. Apollo’s joke is a riff on Greek mythology where Zeus’s wife Hera was always jealous of his many lovers and his offspring with them. It is natural that Apollo be snarky toward his harsh stepmother.

“‘Apollo.’ Leo made a fiery time-out sign. ‘We’re going to use the Valdez method on this.’

Meg frowned. ‘What’s the Valdez method?’

‘Don’t overthink it,’ Leo said. ‘It’ll just make you depressed. In fact, try not to think at all. […] Now let’s go blow some stuff up.’”

Leo’s remark shows that he is a complement to Apollo. Before the attack on the palace of Commodus, Apollo worries about the many dangers they will face. Leo’s advice, laced with humor, is to just go in and blow things up. Leo does not mean this literally but implies that the only way to perform a tough task is to begin on it. This sums up the Valdez method.

“Everything alive deserves a chance to grow.”

Apollo cannot understand the care with which Meg collects the chia seeds she has dropped while summoning her swords during the rescue at Commodus’s palace. Meg tells him the seeds are worth saving because, like all living things, they have the potential to grow. Meg’s remark is rich with subtext: As someone who has suffered as a child, she knows the importance of having space to grow. It is also in keeping with the text’s theme of Confronting Past Mistakes and Finding Second Chances. 

“I felt a bit silly giving this advice to a girl who regularly fought monsters with golden swords, but I had promised Bill Nye the Science Guy I would always promote safe laboratory practices.”

These lines exemplify how Riordan combines humor with pop-culture awareness to make Apollo’s voice relatable and engaging. Here, Apollo advises Meg never to use chemicals unsupervised because he promised real-life children’s science show host Bill Nye always to ensure caution.

“In 1965, I sang with the Beatles at Shea Stadium, though Paul would not agree to turn up my microphone. On the recordings, you can’t even hear my voice on ‘Everybody’s Tryin’ to Be My Baby.’”

Apollo’s throwaway observation when he lands in the overdone arena of Commodus is an example of how Riordan’s writing ingeniously weaves in pop culture references to invoke humor and keep his narrative relatable. It is also a satire on Apollo’s tendency to make himself the center of every major event, in this case, a concert by the iconic pop group, The Beatles. As the god of music, Apollo believes it was he who ensured the success of the concert. Whether this is true is left to the interpretation of the readers.

“My blood turned to cold-pressed olive oil, pumping sluggishly through my heart.”

Apollo’s confession of dread as Commodus races toward him in his arena is an example of Riordan’s use of figurative language. Apollo uses the metaphor of olive oil to describe how his blood seems to slow down in fear.

“Even in ancient times, I had been woefully ignorant of anything below the Saharan desert. We Olympians tended to stay in our own neighborhood around the Mediterranean, which was, I agree terribly cliquish.”

Apollo notes this after Olujime tells him he is an expert in the Nigerian martial art forms of Gidigobo and Yoruba. The reference to the insular Olympian gods is a tongue-in-cheek comment on the tendency of people in the global West to stay uninformed about cultures from other parts of the world. Through Apollo’s comment, Riordan also makes the point that though this particular book and series may be inspired by Greco-Roman mythology, there are many other vast, rich systems of mythology and folklore.

“My name is actually Olujime. For most Americans, Jamie is easier. I understood. I’d only been a mortal a few months and I was getting very tired of spelling out Papadopoulos.”

Olujime’s comment to Apollo is another astute cultural critique: this time on the tendency of Americans to have difficulty pronouncing names from other cultures. The truth is that for most people, a name like Olujime should be no tougher to pronounce than a name like Elizabeth, yet there continues to be a block of sorts. Riordan often uses his fantasy universe to comment on real-world biases and prejudices, as is apparent through this quote.

“When monsters start to fade from mortals’ collective memory, they regenerate less and less often from Tartarus. We have to let them breed and repopulate!”

Apollo’s statement to Meg is about the cattle-like magical yales who roam the fields in front of the Cave of Trophonius. However, it is also a twin commentary about art forms and animal species that are going extinct in the real world. The only way to keep different kinds of stories and species alive is to pay attention to them and allow them to flourish.

“My brain began to swivel and corkscrew like a yale horn. My feet felt like helium balloons.”

After Apollo drinks from the twin springs of Lethe and Mnemosyne or forgetfulness and memory, his mind begins to warp. He forgets important facts but remembers small details vividly. He feels so odd that only figurative language can capture the experience. Riordan uses two similes—the yale horn and the helium balloon—to describe how woozy-headed and light-bodies Apollo feels. 

“Daddy’s death was my fault. […] I should have trained harder […] not objected when Nero told me to fight the larger children…or the animals I did not want to kill. I had upset the Beast.”

These lines are part of the only event in the novel where the reader gets a glimpse into a mind other than that of Apollo. His mind commingling with Meg’s inside the Cave of Trophonius, Apollo experiences Meg’s bad memories first-hand. Meg’s feelings show plainly the trauma toward which the narrative and Apollo have hinted so far; Nero told Meg he would kill her biological father if she did not do his bidding. Thus, he manipulated Meg into thinking her father’s death was her fault. Worse, Meg believes it is she who wakens the Beast, or the monstrous side of Nero. The extent of Nero’s abuse explains Apollo’s empathy for Meg and also allows the reader to sympathize with her character.

“‘Um, I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. I’m Apollo.’

Peaches pointed to his friend on the right. ‘Peaches.’ Then to the baby demon on his left. ‘Peaches.’”

These lines illustrate how Riordan uses comic relief to alleviate stress from a perilous plot point. Though the grain spirit Peaches and two other karpoi have just saved Apollo and Meg from the cave of Trophonius, Meg is still unconscious and Apollo disoriented. The joke here is that Peaches has a vocabulary of only one word, yet proceeds to introduce his fellow karpoi to Apollo. The small moment of humor breaks the built-up tension of the last couple of chapters and signals to the reader that matters are moving toward a happy resolution.

“‘Soldiers are expendable,’ Commodus shrieked.”

It is no surprise Commodus says this about his soldiers who are being killed by the Waystation because he does not regard his soldiers as teammates or even employees but rather as resources that can be easily wasted. He is not a leader, but a tyrant. Since Commodus stands for the antithesis of the values the text champions, he is bound to fail.

“I remember something Marcus Aurelius used to tell his son, a quote that later became famous in his Meditations book: Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.”

The quote Apollo mentions is partly taken from the famous real-life tract attributed to Marcus Aurelius, who in addition to being a king, was a stoic philosopher. Remembering the words brings an epiphany for Apollo. Those who do not embrace the values of light—love, hope, resilience—are bound to be defeated by it. In Apollo’s interpretation of the quote, light is linked with the present moment. Only those who live meaningfully in the present transmit light. Those like Commodus who seek immortality or past glories cannot create meaning. This crucial understanding allows Apollo to access his divine form. The twist here is that it is an appreciation of the present, human moment that allows Apollo to own his godly powers and defeat Commodus. 

“Yet southward must the sun now trace its course,

Through mazes dark to lands of scorching death

To find the master of the swift white horse

And wrest from him the crossword speaker’s breath.”

These lines form the second stanza of the prophecy Meg received from Trophonius. “The sun” here refers to Apollo, the sun-god, while the master of the white horse is possibly the third member of the Triumvirate. The crossword speaker could be another oracle. Since the prophecy is a Shakespearean sonnet, the quatrain (four-line stanza) follows an abab rhyming pattern. The cryptic form of the prophecy ensures that readers remain invested in Apollo’s story, wanting to know what happens next. Thus, the prophecies work as literary puzzles for the readers to solve.

“May the fates consign all root vegetables to the depths of Tartarus.”

Apollo’s dislike of cleaning carrots, radishes, and the like is a running gag in the text. At one level, this is because as a god he is not used to hard work. At another, he could stand for any child or young person asked to do chores at home. This makes Apollo’s characterization very relatable to young readers. The juxtaposition of a familiar gripe with language replete with references to mythology—“fates, the depths of Tartarus”—gives Apollo’s voice its unique, witty quality.

“‘Thank you. For the second chance.’

‘I believe in them. And third and fourth chances. But I only forgive each person once a millennium, so don’t mess up for the next thousand years.’”

The journey of Lityerses is central to the novel’s theme of Confronting Past Mistakes and Finding Second Chances. An antagonist in The Heroes of Olympus and halfway through The Dark Prophecy, Lityerses now accepts his past crimes and wishes to start a new life. Apollo’s assertion about his belief in multiple chances is only partly true; as a god, he tended to be more punishing, as seen in the case of Agamethus and Trophonius. His growing humanity has made him see that people have the potential to evolve and thus should not be easily condemned.