Greek Mythology in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Greek Mythology in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Rick Riordan’s ‘Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief’ focuses on Greek mythology and interprets this into a children’s story. Throughout the story, there are many references and adaptations to mythological tales, and each one is portrayed in a different way. Riordan writes this story as though Hercules, Zeus and Poseidon were still around today, and this would be the effect they would have on people in this day and age.
Percy Jackson is the main character in this story, who is a demi god, who mortals are after. His name is short for Perseus and his father is one the big three gods, Poseidon. He is suffering from dyslexia and ADHD, which could be deliberately added to the character by Riordan, to show he is meant to be a hero, and not to do well in school. This shows that school is not what he is good at, and he is destined to be a hero and save people.
The character Grover, who plays Percy’s best friend, parallels a Satyr who is human from the waist up and goat from the waist down and is a companion of wine God, Dionysus, who we later learn, is the camp director for Half-Blood Camp. As a reader, Grover is portrayed as a very concerned friend throughout the beginning, however, we know he is more than this, and it is his job to protect Percy from whatever evil may come his way. Grover shows some signs of heroism himself, especially towards the end where he offers to sacrifice himself so as Percy can save his mother, (Riordan, 2005, p.316)‘He can torture me until I die, but he wont get me forever.’ and as a reader, Grover can come across a little bit dumb and clumsy, but this makes us look up to Grover, and force us to rethink our opinions of Grover.
The main mythological ...

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...ou don’t realize until you analyse the text, and look at it. I believe Riordan does this, because these are the places where God’s and Heroes today, would be found. In big cities, where young children aspire to go which makes the story much more relatable to an audience who doesn’t know much about myth and can’t interpret the story, and also gives you a modern day prospective of mythology.
Overall, Riordan uses different mythological characters, to create a modern adaptation on the story of Perseus. Riordan does so in a way that a younger audience could understand and even relate to in this day and age. The main point Riordan is trying to get across, is this idea of heroism, and using children’s imaginations to make this happen. However he doesn’t only use Percy to be portrayed as the hero, he also uses Grover, and also Annabeth who both help Percy along his quest.