67 pages • 2 hours read
Rick RiordanThe Lightning Thief
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 17-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “We Shop for Water Beds”
Annabeth loads Percy and Grover into a cab and tells the driver to take them to Los Angeles. She uses the Lotus Casino credit card to pay, and it gives them an infinite amount of money for the fare. On the way, Percy explains his latest dream about the presence in the pit and the thief who failed to bring Hades Zeus’s lightning bolt. This missing lightning bolt explains why the Furies were looking for something on the bus in New Jersey but doesn’t answer the question of who or what is in the pit. Annabeth goes pale and refuses to speculate.
They arrive at the Santa Monica beach at sunset the day before the solstice. Percy walks into the Pacific Ocean and meets the Nereid (sea spirit) he spoke to in the Mississippi River. She gives him three pearls from Poseidon. He should smash one when he needs help and remember that “what belongs to the sea will always return to the sea” (273).
The three wander around Los Angeles but can’t find the address for the Underworld they got at Medusa’s. When a gang of kids attacks them, they take cover in Crusty's Water Bed Palace, owned by Procrustes (Crusty for short). Crusty traps Grover and Annabeth on water beds and stretches them out. Percy tricks Crusty into lying on one of the beds and catches the giant with his own trap. After freeing Annabeth and Grover, Percy finds a map to the Underworld’s address. It’s “only a block from here” (283), and they head out.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Annabeth Does Obedience School”
The Underworld is full of transparent people who don’t move and staffed by Charon (ferryman of the River Styx). Annabeth announces they “want to go to the Underworld” (285). They present three drachmas as payment, and Charon realizes they’re demigods. Percy flatters Charon into letting them go to the Underworld, and Charon takes them across the River Styx.
On the other side, the three come face-to-face with Cerberus (three-headed dog guardian of the Underworld). Annabeth distracts it with a rubber ball and uses lessons she learned in dog obedience classes when she was younger. She has to promise it “another ball soon” so the three can pass into the Underworld proper (298). They set off an alarm for possessing magical items but manage to hide before the Furies find them.
Chapter 19 Summary: “We Find Out the Truth, Sort Of”
Percy, Grover, and Annabeth trek through the Fields of Asphodel, where most of the dead spend eternity in a confused state. A few people try to talk to them but aren’t understandable, and Percy concludes “the dead aren't scary. They're just sad” (301). When Hades’s castle comes into sight, Grover’s enchanted sneakers start flying of their own accord and don’t respond to their command word. They drag Grover to the pit from Percy’s dream but fall off Grover’s hooves before they pull him down. An evil whispering comes from the pit, which Annabeth says is “the entrance to Tartarus” (305). Tartarus is where Zeus imprisoned the Titans. Something tries to pull Percy and the others down, but they manage to escape. Back on solid ground, Percy’s backpack feels heavier. He attributes the sensation to his shaking limbs and leads the way to the palace.
Inside Hades’s palace, Percy asks Hades to hand over the lightning bolt to prevent war. Rather than doing so, Hades accuses Percy of stealing the bolt and reveals his helm of darkness is also missing. He demands Percy return his helm immediately or he will “open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world” (313). When Percy again tells Hades to return the bolt, Hades refuses, saying Percy brought the bolt. Percy opens his heavy backpack and finds the lightning bolt inside. The backpack came from Ares, the real thief.
Hades summons an image of Percy’s mother. She’s alive, and Hades uses her as a bargaining chip. Percy remembers the pearls, but each will only save one person. Percy gives one each to Annabeth and Grover, keeping the third for himself. He smashes his pearl with a promise to his mother that he’ll be back. Bubbles encase Percy, Grover, and Annabeth. They rise out of the Underworld, through the ocean, and to the surface. In the distance, Los Angeles is on fire from Hades’s rage, but Percy dismisses the burning city. He must get to Olympus, return Zeus’s bolt, and “have a serious conversation with the god who'd tricked me” (319).
Chapters 17-19 Analysis
The group’s encounter with Procrustes refers to a story from Greek mythology involving the hero Theseus. Procrustes invited all travelers who passed by his place to spend the night. Once they were on his guest bed, he would either stretch them or cut off their body parts to make them fit exactly. Like Theseus, Percy defeats Procrustes by capturing him in his own trap. Riordan updates the myth by making the bed a water bed and giving Procrustes an entire store.
In Chapter 14, the Nereid tells Percy not to trust the gifts. She refers to those given by both Luke and Ares. The animal-smuggling truck almost got Percy and his friends in more trouble, both with the law and with their driver. The backpack turns out to be the sheath for Zeus’s lightning bolt in disguise. Ares tricks Percy into bringing the bolt to Hades, with the plan to incite Hades to attack. The sneakers Luke gave Percy are also cursed. They will bring the wearer into Tartarus (where Kronos is trapped) when he gets close enough. Giving the sneakers to Grover saved Percy’s life, as well as Grover’s, since the sneakers don’t quite fit his hooves.
Hades’s threat in Chapter 19 shows how much power the gods truly have. Up until now, the gods have played a lot of pranks, such as the broadcast at the waterpark, and thrown a lot of tantrums. They hold grudges for eternity and turn anyone they don’t like into something unsavory. Hades’s threat presents a real consequence that could impact the entirety of Earth. Allowing the dead to flow back into the world would disrupt life in every way. Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon may be brothers and the three most powerful gods, but Hades holds domain over life and death.
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By Rick Riordan
