Topic Research: Percy Jackson's Tales of the Sea

 

(Jellyfish, Erastus McCart on Unsplash)

The topic that I've decided to do for my project is "Percy Jackson's Tales of the Sea," which would revolve around an encounter with Percy Jackson from the Rick Riordan series.  Percy would tell the audience several stories about sea monsters that he has heard from others, or possibly even experiences that he has had himself.  As a result, the tone of the storybook would be mostly lighthearted, with some excitement from the stories themselves.  Below are three story ideas that I might pursue for retelling:

STORY 1: The Hydra

The Hydra is a sea creature from Greek mythology with many heads, and when one head is cut off, two more grow back in its place.  The first mention of the Hydra seems to be from Hesiod's Theogony, although it is not described in much detail.  Another source that I found says that the Hydra has 9 heads and was killed by Hercules (Hyginus). But it seems like the original story from the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus details the fight with Hercules, which I should be able to use for my retelling!  Perhaps Percy has heard the story from the legends of Hercules and is describing them, which is realistic because Hercules is referenced many times in the book series.

STORY 2: Cetus

Another example from Greek mythology is Cetus, a huge sea monster with a greyhound head, a dolphin body, and a huge tale, according to Wikipedia.  The original story varies in terms of the specific content, but typically the Ancient Greek hero Perseus kills the monster Cetus after Poseidon sent it to kill Andromeda.  The original story is found in Apollodorus again.  In the present day, depictions of Cetus are frequently used in ships to indicate that the crew is not afraid of the ocean, or on pirate ships to show that this ship is fierce--that might be a cool touch to add to Percy's retelling somehow.  Additionally, it was Percy's namesake (Perseus) that slew Cetus, and his father Poseidon that sent the sea monster in the first place.  Perhaps I could describe a story where Percy himself fought Cetus to save his girlfriend Annabeth.

STORY 3: Charybdis

The third Greek sea monster that I might use is Charybdis, a monster that creates a giant whirlpool in the Strait of Messina, according to Wikipedia, where an actual whirlpool does exist.  According to some sources, Charybdis is the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia, which means she is Percy's half-sister, so that might be fun to play with.  It seems like Homer's The Odyssey might be a good source for me to use, because Odysseus encounters Charybdis and almost gets sucked into her on accident.  Because the passage on Charybdis is so brief, I will probably have to adapt it to fit Percy's own life, so that his encounter with the sea monster can last longer and be more meaningful.