The Dark Prophecy, Page 29

  Flavian the Flavians were an imperial dynasty that ruled the Roman Empire between 69 and 96 CE

  Gaea the Greek earth goddess; wife of Ouranos; mother of Titans, giants, Cyclopes, and other monsters

  Ganymede a divine hero from Troy whom Zeus abducted to serve as his cupbearer in Olympus

  Germani (Germanus, sing.) tribal people who settled to the west of the Rhine river

  Gidigbo a form of wrestling that involves head-butting, from the Yoruba of Nigeria, Africa

  gloutos Greek for buttocks

  Gorgons three monstrous sisters (Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa) who have hair of living, venomous snakes; Medusa’s eyes can turn the beholder to stone

  Greek fire an incendiary weapon used in naval battles because it can continue burning in water

  griffin a winged creature with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion; the sacred animal of Britomartis

  Grove of Dodona the site of the oldest Greek Oracle, second only to Delphi in importance; the rustling of trees in the grove provided answers to priests and priestesses who journeyed to the site

  Hades the Greek god of death and riches; ruler of the Underworld

  harpy a winged female creature that snatches things

  Hausa a language spoken in northern Nigeria and Niger; also the name of a people

  Hecate goddess of magic and crossroads

  Hemithea teenage daughter of King Staphylus of Naxos; sister of Parthenos; Apollo made her and her sister divine to save them when they jumped off a cliff to escape their father’s rage

  Hephaestus the Greek god of fire and crafts and of blacksmiths; the son of Zeus and Hera, and married to Aphrodite

  Hera the Greek goddess of marriage; Zeus’s wife and sister; Apollo’s stepmother

  Heracles the Greek equivalent of Hercules; the son of Zeus and Alcmene; the strongest of all mortals

  Hercules the Roman equivalent of Heracles; the son of Jupiter and Alcmene, who was born with great strength

  Hermes Greek god of travelers; guide to spirits of the dead; god of communication

  Hessian mercenaries the approximately thirty thousand German troops hired by the British to help fight during the American Revolution when they found it too difficult to recruit their own soldiers

  hippocampi (hippocampus, sing.) half-horse, half-fish creatures

  Hunters of Artemis a group of maidens loyal to Artemis and gifted with hunting skills and eternal youth as long as they reject romance for life

  Hyacinthus a Greek hero and Apollo’s lover, who died while trying to impress Apollo with his discus skills

  ichor the golden fluid that is the blood of gods and immortals

  ìgboyà the Yoruba word for confidence, boldness, and bravery

  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

  Julius Caesar a Roman politician and general who became a dictator of Rome, turning it from a republic into the Roman Empire

  Karmanor a minor Greek harvest god; a local deity in Crete who married Demeter; together they had a son, Eubouleus, who became the god of swineherds

  karpoi (karpos, sing.) grain spirits

  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

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

  Lethe the Greek word for forgetfulness; the name of a river in the Underworld whose waters caused forgetfulness; the name of a Greek spirit of oblivion

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

  Little Tiber the barrier of Camp Jupiter

  Lityerses the son of King Midas; he challenged people to harvesting contests and beheaded those he beat, earning him the nickname “Reaper of Men”

  Marcus Aurelius Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 CE; father of Commodus; considered the last of the “Five Good Emperors”

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

  melomakarona Greek Christmas honey cookies

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

  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

  Mnemosyne Titan goddess of memory; daughter of Ouranos and Gaea

  Mount Olympus home of the Twelve Olympians

  Mount Othrys a mountain in central Greece; the Titans’ base during the ten-year war between the Titans and the Olympians

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

  Narcissus a hunter known for his beauty; the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope; he was vain, arrogant, and disdainful of admirers; he fell in love with his own reflection; Narcissus was also the name of Commodus’s personal trainer and wrestling partner, who drowned the emperor in his bathtub—these were two different Narcissuses

  Nemean Lion a large, vicious lion that plagued Nemea in Greece; its pelt was impervious to all human weapons; Hercules strangled it with his bare hands

  Nero ruled as Roman Emperor from 54 to 58 CE; he had his mother and his first wife put to death; many believe he was responsible for setting a fire that gutted Rome, but he blamed the Christians, whom he burned on crosses; he built an extravagant new palace on the cleared land and lost support when construction expenses forced him to raise taxes; he committed suicide

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

  nymph a female nature deity who animates nature

  Oceanus the eldest son of Ouranos and Gaea; the Titan god of the sea

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

  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

  Orion a giant huntsman who was the most loyal and valued of Artemis’s attendants until he was slain by a scorpion

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

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

  Parthenos teenage daughter of King Staphylus of Naxos; sister of Hemithea; Apollo made her and her sister divine to save them when they jumped off a cliff to escape their father’s rage

  Peloponnese a large peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece, separated from the northern part of the country by the Gulf of Corinth

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

  podex Latin for anus

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

  Potina a Roman goddess of children, who watches over what they are drinking

  praetor an elected Roman magistrate and commander of the army

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

  princeps prince of Rome; the early emperors used this title for themselves

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

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

  satyr a Greek forest god, part goat and part man

  Sibyl a prophetess

  S
ibylline Books a collection of prophecies in rhyme written in Greek

  Sparta a city-state in ancient Greece with military dominance

  spatha a long sword used by Roman cavalry units

  Staphylus king of Naxos, Greece; a demigod son of Dionysus; father of Hemithea and Parthenos

  Styx a powerful water nymph; the eldest daughter of the sea Titan, Oceanus; goddess of the Underworld’s most important river; goddess of hatred; the River Styx is named after her

  Suburra an area of the city of Rome that was crowded and lower-class

  Tantalus a king who fed the gods a stew made of his own son; 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; the lowest part of the Underworld

  Teumessian Fox a giant fox sent by the gods to ravage the city of Thebes in punishment for a crime; the beast was destined never to be caught

  Three Fates Even before there were gods there were the Fates: Clotho, who spins the thread of life; Lachesis, the measurer, who determines how long a life will be; and Atropos, who cuts the thread of life with her shears

  Three Mile Island a nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where, on March 28, 1979, there was a partial meltdown in reactor number 2, causing public concern

  Throne of Memory Mnemosyne carved this chair, in which a petitioner would sit after visiting the Cave of Trophonius and receiving bits of verse from the Oracle; once seated in the chair, the petitioner would recount the verses, the priests would write them down, and they would become a prophecy

  Tiber River the third-longest river in Italy; Rome was founded on its banks; in ancient Rome, executed criminals were thrown into the river

  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

  Triptolemus son of King Celeus and brother of Demophon; a favorite of Demeter; he became the inventor of the plow and agriculture

  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

  Trophonius demigod son of Apollo, designer of Apollo’s temple at Delphi, and spirit of the dark Oracle; he decapitated his half brother Agamethus to avoid discovery after their raid on King Hyrieus’s treasury

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

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

  Via Appia the Appian Way, one of the first and most important roads of the ancient Roman republic; after the Roman army subdued the revolt led by Spartacus in 73 BC, they crucified more than six thousand slaves and lined the road for 130 miles with their bodies

  yale (see also centicore) a fierce yak-like creature with large horns that can swivel in any direction

  Yoruba one of the three largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, Africa; also a language and a religion of the Yoruba people

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

  Zoë Nightshade a daughter of Atlas who was exiled and later joined the Hunters of Artemis, becoming the loyal lieutenant of Artemis

  Also by Rick Riordan

  PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS

  Book One: The Lightning Thief

  Book Two: The Sea of Monsters

  Book Three: The Titan’s Curse

  Book Four: The Battle of the Labyrinth

  Book Five: The Last Olympian

  The Demigod Files

  The Lightning Thief: The Graphic Novel

  The Sea of Monsters: The Graphic Novel

  The Titan’s Curse: The Graphic Novel

  Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods

  Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes

  From Percy Jackson: Camp Half-Blood Confidential

  THE KANE CHRONICLES

  Book One: The Red Pyramid

  Book Two: The Throne of Fire

  Book Three: The Serpent’s Shadow

  The Red Pyramid: The Graphic Novel

  The Throne of Fire: The Graphic Novel

  THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS

  Book One: The Lost Hero

  Book Two: The Son of Neptune

  Book Three: The Mark of Athena

  Book Four: The House of Hades

  Book Five: The Blood of Olympus

  The Demigod Diaries

  The Lost Hero: The Graphic Novel

  The Son of Neptune: The Graphic Novel

  Demigods & Magicians

  MAGNUS CHASE AND THE GODS OF ASGARD

  Book One: The Sword of Summer

  Book Two: The Hammer of Thor

  For Magnus Chase: Hotel Valhalla Guide to the Norse Worlds

  THE TRIALS OF APOLLO

  Book One: The Hidden Oracle

  PRAISE FOR RICK RIORDAN

  Percy Jackson and the Olympians

  The Lightning Thief

  “Perfectly paced, with electrifying moments chasing each other like heartbeats.”

  —The New York Times Book Review

  The Sea of Monsters

  ★ “In a feat worthy of his heroic subjects, Riordan crafts a sequel stronger than his compelling debut.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  The Titan’s Curse

  “All in all, a winner of Olympic proportions.”

  —School Library Journal

  The Battle of the Labyrinth

  ★ “Look no further for the next Harry Potter; meet Percy Jackson, as legions of fans already have.”

  —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

  The Last Olympian

  “The hordes of young readers who have devoured Rick Riordan’s books…will no doubt gulp down this concluding volume as greedily as they would a plateful of ambrosia, or maybe pizza.”

  —The Wall Street Journal

  The Heroes of Olympus

  Book One: The Lost Hero

  “Percy Jackson fans can rest easy: this first book in Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus spin-off series is a fast-paced adventure with enough familiar elements to immediately hook those eager to revisit his modern world of mythological mayhem. Rotating among his three protagonists, Riordan’s storytelling is as polished as ever, brimming with wit, action, and heart—his devotees won’t be disappointed.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “With appealing new characters within a familiar framework, this spin-off will satisfy the demand for more.”

  —Booklist

  “Riordan excels at clever plot devices and at creating an urgent sense of cliff-hanging danger. His interjection of humor by incongruous juxtaposition…provides some welcome relief. The young heroes deal with issues familiar to teens today: Who am I? Can I live up to the expectations of others? Having read the first series is helpful but not essential, and the complex plot is made for sequels.”

  —School Library Journal

  “Riordan extends the franchise in a logical direction while maximizing the elements that made the first series so popular: irreverent heroes, plenty of tension-filled moments fighting monsters, and authentic classical mythology mixed in with modern life. Completely in control of pacing and tone, he balances a faultless comic banter against deeper notes that reveal the characters’ vulnerabilities. With Percy Jackson slated to make an appearance in later volumes, fans nostalgic for the old books should find in this new series