The Heroes of Olympus Article: Party crashers are so annoying and evil (literally)

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Party crashers are so annoying and evil (literally)

posted by HecateA

Hello my almighty vrienden and sisters/brothers in waiting, of just readers. Also, hello to the party crashers. Yes, we do have party crashers on our hands.

I'll copy paste this one little bit of chapter 1 of the Son of Neptune in this artikel and you'll all get where this is going (maybe... *stares at horizon wondering*)

"'Before u slash me to bits,' he said, 'who's this patron u mentioned?'
Euryale sneered. 'The goddess Gaea, of course! The one who brought us back from oblivion! u won't live long enough to meet her, but your vrienden below will soon face her wrath. Even now, her armies are marching south. At the Feast of Fortune, she'll awaken, and the demigods will be cut down like- like-'
'Like our low prices at Bargain Mart!' Stheno suggested."

Feast of Fortune sounds important, armies of Gaea marching south sounds bad, and all that together in a sentance zei door a happy gorgon sounds really bad. So let's get our stories straight here; what is the Feast of Fortune?

Well, I did a lot of research -which included Google, grilling my nice scool librarian and confused friends, and looking stuff up on camphalf-bloodwiki.com, mortalnet, and heroesofolympus.com- and the thing that came up the most often; the Veneralia.

I hear you; hun? What's the Veneralia? It sounds like a type of Italian delicaty. Well as all good artikel on the subject would, I've got an explenation further down.

So Veneralia... It was this big festival for Venus (Piper's mom! Sorry, just putting it out there). All the statues and other artwork of the goddess was washed and cleaned and scented and made pretty, pretty, pretty door the women of the place where it was. All of Venus' women followers also went around wearing myrhe (which was Venus' plant) and they put some on the statues too. The festival was around April 1st and celebrated across Rome, particularly at her temples.

Speed round fact about Venus: Romulus zei that he and Remus (Lupa's first babysitting job) were sons of Mars, but that Venus was their ancestor.

The goddess of luck and opportunity, Fortuna, was also worshiped at the Veneralia, because of 'luck in love' and all that sappy crud.

Veneralia? Could be our feast. It's in April too -Venus' maand for your brain's nutrition- and beggining. Now it's time for some math (quit groanning, I'll do it for you).

Percy went missing 6 days before Solstice, yes? 3 days before Jason pops up, 3 days for the quest to happen, so 6. Let's say December 15, kay? 2 and a half months from December 15 is either late February of early March.

If the Veneralia is what we're looking for; then there's about a month's time to kill. That gives time for... Learning about Rome, taking long treks to Alaska (tee-hee), and other such things.

BUT! (don't u love it when I'm giving u a long explenation for something and then say 'but'?)

Mars. God of war. One of the favoriete gods for the Romans. My favoriete type of alien (lol, just kidding, I like Lorics better). Anyways, him. His maand is March (in French 'March' is 'Mars'). Although I can't find anything about it, there were most likely festivals for him in March.

But I still believe in the Veneralia for now because...

a) Feast of Fortune- Veneralia was about Venus and Fortuna, goddess of fortune too. Hey; if the shoe fits!
b) It came up ALL the time in Google and everywhere else I looked!
c) The time seems about right, doesn't it? I mean, yeah... Plus Percy is most likely a little behind, and time might work differently in the wolf house, like other magical places.
d) Percy might even have gotten to the wolf house and been found later than Jason was. I mean, where was he during the battle there? Exactly; Juno must have kept him somewhere because no way Percy would let anything stand between him and a fight where his help is needed.

Either way, there will be a party, and there will be crashers. Who (well, meer like what) will be where at what? I don't know. Ask Rachel, do I look like Rachel? I better not, I'm a brunette...

Thanks for reading, keep theorising and if u have any aditional info, door all means, I beg of you; post in comments!

mei97, ala44 and 4 others like this

halfblood963 nice i luv the lorics i am #4

Biancadi LOL party crashers

wisegurl There was too much info in that article My brain is confuzzled

daughter-ofzeus I did a ton of research on the feast and couldnt find a dang thing!And i cought that Euriale was talking about "his friends below" so he might be somewhere near Camp ceaser salad... which makes me think this intire time hes been looking for CCS so thats where he was during the fight...only Percy would take that long to find CCS.... my gods... and where are Gaeas trrops marching that is so south?? where south are they marching? well im still researching... looking for some godly place down south... oh goodness hopefully its not oklahoma.... but im shooting more towards south california ***EDIT** I did my research!! so Arcadia, california is in south california... Arcadia was a famous place in Greece Hesperia california is very south in california it was named after a greek goddess who personified evening Hector, California named for a brave soilder in the Trojan war these are just a few i found... but who knows why Gaea wants to go there.... and it could also be somewher south and not in california though...

partypony Awesome article. So this means either Venus and Fortuna are gonna be really important somewhere in the series, or they'll make an(other) appearance [i]because[/i] of the Veneralia, or they'll be celebrating with the Roman gods, forgetting about the war that's about to destroy life as we know it. Or maybe it'll just mean that there's a festival.

AnnabethC Euryale sneered. 'The goddess Gaea, of course! The one who brought us back from oblivion! You won't live long enough to meet her, but your friends below will soon face her wrath. Even now, her armies are marching south. At the Feast of Fortune, she'll awaken, and the demigods will be cut down like- like-' .-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Just curious If anyone else caught the thing about his FRIENDS DOWN BELOW. Well. His 'internal radar' or whatever was going crazy when he was on top of the tunnel right? So- does that mean there are demigods under the bridge? If so, Greek or Roman? I know it's way to much to hope for Annabeth and Grover, but still...:/

daughter-ofzeus ^^ HAHA im not the only one that noticed it!! i saw that and thught maybe he was just near CCS and hed been looking for it all this time!

HecateA Thank you so much guys! And I noticed too, I think that the Caldecott tunnel is the entrance to the Roman camp. I mean, if Percy's radar is waking up... Also, this quote: [i]"Or you can do a good dead for an old lady. Carry me to camp with you." "....Carry you?" Percy hoped she was kidding. Then June hitched up her skirts, showing him her swollen purple feet. "I can't get there by myself," she said. "Carry me to camp across the highway, through the tunnel, and across the river."[/i] (not in chapter one, but you'll find a link to a full page in this club's links) The setting is that an old hippy called June (totally not Juno, especially seeing as Hera didn't ask the original Jason to do that for her too, hmm?) is trying to get Percy to take her to camp with him, and she's basically telling him where camp is, so through the tunnel. I'll be writing an article on that btw :) I also think that when Euryale says 'friends down south', she only means the camp. Because, let's face it, it's in the south. Also, the cover shows Percy somewhere snowy, so presumably in the north. If that place is a layer or base of somekind, California is pretty much south from there. More on that in an article I'll write sometime this week/weekend (give me time to breathe! Article, fanfic, school, things, ahh!!! But I love it all, so I'll live)

Idunn I didn't get the math. Lol, just kidding! Great article!

athenartemis Article = awesomeness (see why I have an A in math?) Wow, am I the only one who didn't think realistically with the cover? I noticed those little Greek (or Roman?) temples on top of the cliff, and considered A) Gaea decided to freeze Greece, or B) Sarah Palin wanted to make some weird ice monument up there. Because I doubt RR wants to get into politicswith this series, I'll stick to being clueless. In terms of the cover, I'm more curious about what bird of prey is on Percy's staff thingy. About the Feast of Fortune, I have to wonder out loud if the Roman camp celebrates Veneralia. It's obviously a Roman tradition, why not? Then I got excited. Feast of the LOVE goddess! Annabeth and Percy finally reunited at the feast of the LOVE goddess (*screams, giggles, slaps self in the face repeatedly*)!! It's too perfect for it to happen, though. The part of me that went through that psychotic fit can dream, right?

HecateA Aww, that would rock! And I think the bird is an eagle and the staff is Zeus (I wrote another article on that subject)

kaylap1410 That is really interesting! God you are excited aren't you. I did chuckle a bit with your reference to Lorics. I have to agree with you that John is the best freaking alien ever. Thanks for the interesting research on uncovering more on the series. You should be RR's personal assistant!

CareyM25 I gained so much from this article, excellent as I'm finding all of your articles to be! :) I liked your timelines Dec 15, abt late Feb/early March, and I like your thoughts on Veneralia as well. A thought I had when 1st realizing the dates was the vernal equinox, because in previous books, Riordan's used the solstice's as deadlines. So March 20th? Only thing I found on wikipedia, was Hilaria: In ancient Roman religious tradition, the Hilaria, were festivals celebrated on the vernal equinox to honor Cybele. I know Cybele could refer to Rhea or Gaea, but assuming it's Gaea it might bring her army some fortune. But ultimately I'm thinking your right with Veneralia. 3 months left to finding out.