The Hidden Oracle (39 page)

Imperial gold
    a rare metal deadly to monsters, consecrated at the Pantheon; its existence was a closely guarded secret of the emperors

Iris
    the Greek goddess of the rainbow, and a messenger of the gods

Julian dynasty
    the time period measured from the battle of Actium (31
BCE
) to the death of Nero (68
CE
)

karpoi
(
karpos
, sing.)    grain spirits

kouretes
    armored dancers who guarded the infant Zeus from his father, Kronos

Kronos
    the youngest of the twelve Titans; the son of Ouranos and Gaea; the father of Zeus; he killed his father at his mother’s bidding; Titan lord of fate, harvest, justice, and time; Roman form: Saturn

Labyrinth
    an underground maze originally built on the island of Crete by the craftsman Daedalus to hold the Minotaur

Laomedon
    a Trojan king whom Poseidon and Apollo were sent to serve after they offended Zeus

Lepidus
    a Roman patrician and military commander who was in a triumvirate with Octavian and Marc Antony

Leto
    mother of Artemis and Apollo with Zeus; goddess of motherhood

Lupercalia
    a pastoral festival, observed on February 13 through 15, to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility

Lydia
    a province in ancient Rome; the double ax originated there, along with the use of coins and retail shops

Marc Antony
    a Roman politician and general; part of the triumvirate, with Lepidus and Octavian, who together tracked down and defeated Caesar’s killers; had an enduring affair with Cleopatra

Marsyas
    a satyr who lost to Apollo after challenging him in a musical contest, which led to Marsyas being flayed alive

Medea
    a follower of Hecate and one of the great sorceresses of the ancient world

Midas
    a king with the power to transform anything he touched to gold; he selected Marsyas as the winner in the musical contest between Apollo and Marsyas, resulting in Apollo giving Midas the ears of a donkey

Minos
    king of Crete; son of Zeus; every year he made King Aegus pick seven boys and seven girls to be sent to the Labyrinth, where they would be eaten by the Minotaur; after his death he became a judge in the Underworld

Minotaur
    the half-man, half-bull son of King Minos of Crete; the Minotaur was kept in the Labyrinth, where he killed people who were sent in; he was finally defeated by Theseus

Mithridates
    king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia (now Turkey) from about 120 to 63
BCE
; one of the Roman Republic’s most formidable and successful enemies, who engaged three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars

Mount Olympus
    home of the Twelve Olympians

myrmeke
    a giant antlike creature that poisons and paralyzes its prey before eating it; known for protecting various metals, particularly gold

Nemesis
    the Greek goddess of revenge

Nero
    Roman emperor from 54 to 68
CE
; the last in the Julian dynasty

New Rome
    a community near Camp Jupiter where demigods can live together in peace, without interference from mortals or monsters

Nike
    the Greek goddess of strength, speed, and victory

Nine Muses
    Greek goddesses of literature, science, and the arts, who have inspired artists and writers for centuries

Niobe
    daughter of Tantalus and Dione; suffered the loss of her six sons and six daughters, who were killed by Apollo and Artemis as a punishment for her pride

nosoi
(
nosos
, sing.)    spirits of plague and disease

nymph
    a female nature deity who animates nature

Octavian
    the founder and first emperor of the Roman Empire; adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar (
see also
Caesar Augustus)

Odysseus
    legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer’s epic poem
The Odyssey

Ogygia
    the island home—and prison—of the nymph Calypso

omphalus
    stones used to mark the center—or navel—of the world

Oracle of Delphi
    a speaker of the prophecies of Apollo

Oracle of Trophonius
    a Greek who was transformed into an Oracle after his death; located at the Cave of Trophonius; known for terrifying those who seek him

Ouranos
    the Greek personification of the sky; father of the Titans

palikoi
(
palikos
, sing.)    twin sons of Zeus and Thaleia; the gods of geysers and thermal springs

Pan
    the Greek god of the wild; the son of Hermes

Pandora
    the first human woman created by the gods; endowed with a unique gift from each; released evil into the world by opening a jar

Parthenon
    a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena located at the Athenian Acropolis in Greece

Patroclus
    son of Menoetius; he shared a deep friendship with Achilles after being raised alongside him; he was killed while fighting in the Trojan War

pegasus
(
pegasi
, pl.)    a winged divine horse; sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god

Peleus
    father of Achilles; his wedding to the sea-nymph Thetis was well attended by the gods, and a disagreement between them at the event eventually lead to the Trojan War; the guardian dragon at Camp Half-Blood is named after him

Persephone
    the Greek queen of the Underworld; wife of Hades; daughter of Zeus and Demeter

phalanx
(
phalanxes
, pl.)    a compact body of heavily armed troops

Phidias
    a famous ancient Greek sculptor who created the Athena Parthenos and many others

Polyphemus
    the gigantic one-eyed son of Poseidon and Thoosa; one of the Cyclopes

Poseidon
    the Greek god of the sea; son of the Titans Kronos and Rhea, and brother of Zeus and Hades

praetor
    an elected Roman magistrate and commander of the army

Primordial Chaos
    the first thing ever to exist; a void from which the first gods were produced

Prometheus
    the Titan who created humans and gifted them with fire stolen from Mount Olympus

Pythia
    the name given to every Oracle of Delphi

Python
    a monstrous serpent that Gaea appointed to guard the Oracle at Delphi

Rhea Silvia
    the queen of the Titans, mother of Zeus

Riptide
    the name of Percy Jackson’s sword;
Anaklusmos
in Greek

River Styx
    the river that forms the boundary between earth and the Underworld

Saturnalia
    an ancient Roman festival celebrating Saturn (Kronos)

satyr
    a Greek forest god, part goat and part man

shadow-travel
    a form of transportation that allows creatures of the Underworld and children of Hades to use shadows to leap to any desired place on earth or in the Underworld, although it makes the user extremely fatigued

Sibyl
    a prophetess

Sibylline Books
    a collection of prophecies in rhyme written in Greek; Tarquinius Superbus, a king of Rome, bought them from a prophetess and consulted them in times of great danger

siccae
    a short curved sword used for battle in ancient Rome

Sparta
    a city-state in ancient Greece with military dominance

Stygian iron
    a magical metal, forged in the River Styx, capable of absorbing the very essence of monsters and injuring mortals, gods, Titans, and giants; has a significant effect on ghosts and creatures from the Underworld

Talos
    a giant mechanical man made of bronze and used on Crete to guard its shoreline from invaders

Tantalus
    According to legend, this king was such a good friend of the gods that he was allowed to dine at their table—until he spilled their secrets on earth; he was sent to the Underworld, where his curse was to be stuck in a pool of water under a fruit tree, but never be able to drink or eat

Tartarus
    husband of Gaea; spirit of the abyss; father of the giants; a region of the Underworld

Theodosius
    the last to rule over the united Roman Empire; known for closing all ancient temples across the empire

Thracian
    of Thrace, a region centered on the modern borders of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey

Titan War
    the epic ten-year battle between the Titans and the Olympians that resulted in the Olympians taking the throne

Titans
    a race of powerful Greek deities, descendants of Gaea and Ouranos, that ruled during the Golden Age and were overthrown by a race of younger gods, the Olympians

trireme
    a Greek warship, having three tiers of oars on each side

triumvirate
    a political alliance formed by three parties

Trojan War
    According to legend, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband, Menelaus, king of Sparta

Troy
    a Roman city situated in modern-day Turkey; site of the Trojan War

Tyche
    the Greek goddess of good fortune; daughter of Hermes and Aphrodite

Typhon
    the most terrifying Greek monster; father of many famous monsters, including Cerberus, the vicious multi-headed dog tasked with guarding the entrance to the Underworld

Underworld
    the kingdom of the dead, where souls go for eternity; ruled by Hades

Zephyros
    the Greek god of the West Wind

Zeus
    the Greek god of the sky and the king of the gods

RICK RIORDAN
, dubbed “storyteller of the gods” by
Publishers Weekly
, is the author of four
New York Times
#1 best-selling series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus, based on Greek and Roman mythology; the Kane Chronicles, based on Egyptian mythology; and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, based on Norse mythology. His two Greek myth collections,
Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods
and
Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes
, illustrated by John Rocco, were
New York Times
#1 best sellers as well. Rick lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with his wife and two sons. To learn more about him, visit his Web site at
www.rickriordan.com
.