69 pages • 2 hours read
Rick RiordanThe Battle of the Labyrinth
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Awakening Powers
Riordan depicts growing, awakening, and re-awakening powers to foreshadow the battles to come and to symbolize personal development. On the Olympian side, demigods like Percy and Nico develop abilities that are specific to their godly parents. Neither demigod can initially control his strength. Through trial and error, they learn to manage their powers, which still cause physical discomfort to the half-bloods and are barely enough to contain the Titan army. Riordan suggests that a huge expansion of power will be necessary for the imminent war.
The stages of development for divine abilities align with the stages of the demigods’ personal development. At the Triple G Ranch, Percy decides to be a different kind of hero than Hercules, which is the moment his powers awaken. By the end of the book, when Percy has matured, he can control the output of his powers to save Juniper, though his lingering pain denotes that he still has room to grow. Nico’s growing strength aligns with his growing anger and thirst for vengeance. As Nico works through his grief and forgives Percy, he controls his power more effectively: He faints after the battle of Camp Half-Blood, but this does not indicate another decline in his mental state. Rather, it shows that despite his growing maturity, Nico is still an 11-year-old child.
On the Titan side, ancient monsters are dangerous enough on their own, but monsters with specific skills and specific grudges are all the more threatening. They join Kronos because of their resentment towards the Olympians, confronting Percy with the questionable deeds of the gods. The eturn of the telekhines is especially significant because they re-forge Kronos’s deadly scythe after building weapons for the Olympians. The monster Typhon’s stirring foreshadows the magnitude of the upcoming war and builds suspense for the final installment of the series.
Janus, Choices, and Crossroads
The quest presents characters with difficult choices that test their principles and beliefs. The minor god Janus (god of choices, doorways, and pathways) embodies this recurring plot device through. Janus has two faces, representing the conflicting nature of the choices he offers. Percy sees Janus in his dream where Daedalus murders Perdix. Janus’s presence implies that Daedalus had the choice to either kill Perdix or let him live. Daedalus’s decision shows Percy the potentially deadly outcomes of Janus’s choices. Janus warns Percy and Annabeth in Chapter 6 that they can’t escape his offers. This warning creates suspense and imbues each future decision with a life-or-death quality.
When Janus forces Annabeth to decide which tunnel to turn down in the Labyrinth in Chapter 6, he becomes associated with crossroads, another symbol of choice, physically representing different trajectories. Janus exposes Annabeth’s internal doubts about her leadership abilities while he taunts her indecision. Annabeth has to make several difficult decisions as the leader of the quest, all of which could cause the journey to come to a disastrous end: allowing Grover and Tyson to split off from the group, leaving Percy alone to handle the telekhines in Mount St. Helens, and choosing to bring Rachel on the quest despite her being a mortal. These choices build trust between the characters and illuminate the change of course that is possible when two options present themselves.
The choice Janus warns Percy about comes when he is on the island of Ogygia: to stay forever or leave forever. This decision causes Percy great conflict about his purpose, his abilities, and his loyalty to his friends. He decides to take the difficult route of returning to the fight rather than staying out of harm’s way on the island. As a consequence, Percy can never see Calypso again, but his devotion to his friends and their safety outweighs his desire for his own happiness. Riordan uses Percy’s choice on Ogygia to symbolize the permanence of certain decisions and the careful thought that is necessary when presented with these kinds of offers.
Ghosts and Phantoms
Ghosts and phantoms frequently symbolize loss, unfinished business, and lingering guilt. The appearance of ghosts can be omens of death for others, or a prompt for living characters to uncover the truth so that ghosts can finally rest. Riordan uses specters as a learning opportunity for the living. The book has three major ghosts: King Minos, Bianca, and Theseus. Unlike classic ghosts who are trapped in the world of the living, Riordan ghosts are summoned from the Underworld, in keeping with Greek myth tradition. Theseus and Bianca are benevolent—though reluctant—advisors, who warn Nico about the dangerous path he is on and try to teach him to let go of his grief. King Minos is a malevolent spirit with an ongoing grudge against Daedalus, who explains Daedalus’s motives for hiding in the Labyrinth.
Daedalus has a permanent purple mark of a bird on his neck that reappears on every automaton body. This mark acts as a reminder that Daedalus murdered his nephew Perdix’s murder and symbolizes Daedalus’s lingering guilt. Daedalus can only be free from this mark when he accepts his death, goes to the Underworld, faces punishment for his actions, and receives forgiveness from Perdix.
Calypso refers to the island of Ogygia as a “phantom island” (211) because of its hidden locale. The island is a paradise that offers Percy the chance to escape his prophecy, the war, and a young death. The island is also phantom-like because its image and inhabitants haunt Percy when he leaves. Percy calls Calypso his “biggest what if” (225), showing that he will remember the decision to leave in moments of doubt. Like a phantom, the island appears and disappears, never to be seen again once Percy leaves. The island symbolizes the loss of Percy’s safety, but it also symbolizes Calypso’s loss. Calypso’s punishment binds her to the phantom island, so that she becomes like a ghost herself. She appears to heroes to offer help and guidance, but always fades for them in the real world. Her life is a continual string of loss that only exists in the real world as a haunting memory.
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