“The only thing I knew for certain: my punishment was unfair. Zeus needed someone to blame, so of course he’d picked the handsomest, most talented, most popular god in the pantheon: me.” 

Apollo, one of the 12 Olympian gods, finds himself falling to earth after having been banished by his father, Zeus. Unable to fully recall the events leading to his fall, Apollo only has one clear memory: Zeus shouting out a punishment to him. Subsequent chapters reveal that Zeus punished Apollo because it Apollo’s son Octavian inadvertently ignited a cataclysmic civil war between the Greek and Roman demigod camps, events that form the plot of The Blood of Olympus in Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus pentalogy. Apollo thinks Zeus’s punishment is unjust because he is at best only indirectly connected to the events that led to the civil war. However, Apollo’s assertion that Zeus punished him for his excellence highlights his own vanity and sense of superiority. The passage also showcases Zeus and Apollo’s problematic relationship, which is a recurrent motif in the book. Though Apollo is smug and arrogant, Zeus, too, comes across as a dictatorial, high-handed parent.

“‘I am Apollo,’ I announced. ‘You mortals have three choices: offer me tribute, flee, or be destroyed.’ I wanted my words to echo through the alley, shake the towers of New York, and cause the skies to rain smoking ruin. None of that happened. On the word destroyed, my voice squeaked.”

Faced by the muggers Cade and Mikey in a Manhattan alley, Apollo tries to scare them away by proclaiming his godly status. However, Apollo is now in the form of a 16-year-old human boy, and therefore his warnings have no effect on the two young men.