The Dark Prophecy

One of the most prominent motifs in the novel is difficult, authoritarian fathers. Zeus is one such father who has exiled Apollo thrice to punish him. Apollo has been a bad father to Trophonius, having refused to answer his prayers because Trophonius failed him. The most egregious example of terrible parenting is Nero, who has manipulated and traumatized Meg to an extreme. Nero killed Meg’s kind, biological father and established himself as a second father to her, leaving her little room to grow. He uses his alias “the Beast” (50) to terrorize her, threatening that she will unleash the Beast—Nero’s monstrous side—if she doesn’t fulfill his orders to perfection. Apollo identifies with Meg precisely because he knows what having a cruel, abusive father figure is like.

Apollo finds similar kinship with Lityerses, who also has experienced his share of dubious parenting. While Midas, his biological father, frequently turned him into a gold statue at a whim, Commodus, his self-appointed second father, treats him like an expendable resource. Apollo understands the depth of Lityerses’s trauma, which is why he tells him at the end of the novel: “We share common ground—we’re both sons of overbearing fathers, and we’ve been misled and burdened by bad choices, but we’re talented in our chosen ways. […] I believe in [second chances” (398).

The effects of bad parenting are long-lasting. Meg continues to chase the fantasy that Nero may love her selflessly and keeps referring to him as “my stepfather.” This is understandable since Meg is still a child and yearns for a parent figure. She was also raised by Nero and craves his acceptance. Lityerses, much older, begins to resist the trauma of terrible parenting when he tells Commodus that he is a “second father even worse than the first” (375). The subject of difficult fathers is also a running motif because Apollo himself needs to do right by his demigod children by the end of the series.

With Meg—and it is later revealed, Lityerses—being the offspring of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, it is natural that plants play an important role in the narrative. Riordan adds to the motif of plants the symbolism of resilience, growth, and renewed hope. Meg uses her power over plants to enable her quest, such as when she grows creepers to weigh down a canopy and save Apollo and Calypso at the zoo. She also uses chia seeds to sprout a path to the room the prisoners are stashed at the palace of Commodus. The seeds’ growth is literal and symbolic, best expressed by Meg herself when she says of the chia seeds: “Everything alive deserves a chance to grow” (216). When Meg is close to death in the Cave of Trophonius, Apollo reinforces this symbolic meaning of plants. He tells Meg to return to the living because “you have deep roots. You have strong stems” (334-35).

Plants also symbolize hard work, nourishment, and comfort, as seen in the Waystation. Apollo having to clean and peel root vegetables is a running joke in the text, but Emmie and Josephine’s reverence for the plants they grow shows their communion with nature. Like the plants, Emmie and Josephine are associated with sustenance and strength. As strong, capable women comfortable in their decisions and appearance, they are the text’s matriarchs, a quality Leo and Lityerses gravitate toward.