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"You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.
You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.
You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.
And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end."
This line is delivered to Percy by the Oracle of Delphi in Chapter Nine. The Oracle is an entity that resides in the attic of the Big House at Camp Half-Blood and delivers prophecies—predictions of the future. Percy is sent to the Oracle to determine his quest, and the above quote is the result. Prophecies are integral to many Greek myths, and just like in Greek mythology, Percy’s prophecy is vague and does not offer any clear instructions or guidance for how to proceed. As Chiron reminds Percy after he meets with the Oracle, “the Oracle’s words often have double meanings. Don’t dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass.”
The prophecy makes little sense at first but its meaning becomes clear as the events of the book progress. Percy and his friends originally interpret “You shall go west, and face the god who has turned” to mean Hades, who they suspect stole Zeus’s master bolt. However, they eventually realize that Ares actually stole the master bolt to start a war and Percy fights him on the beaches of California. The second part—“You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned”—has a double meaning because Percy and his friends find and return both Zeus’s master bolt and Hades’s Helm of Darkness over the course of their quest. Percy spends the entire novel worrying about part three, which claims that “[he] shall be betrayed by one who calls [him] a friend.” It is not until the end of the novel that Percy learns that Luke has been conspiring with Kronos and Ares since the beginning. The final line, “And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end,” refers to Percy’s inability to rescue his mother from the Underworld. Percy only accepted the quest in the first place because he wanted to save Sally—she “matter[ed] most.” However, Percy is forced to leave without Sally—she is only freed when Percy returns Hades’s Helm of Darkness, and Hades returns the favor. The convoluted, misleading fortune demonstrates to the reader that prophecies cannot be taken at face value, and it trains them to think critically when they encounter prophecies throughout the rest of the series.
