The Sea of Monsters Chapters 13 & 14 Summary & Analysis

Summary

Chapter 13

Percy is pleased to discover that his parentage makes him a natural sailor, and he enjoys himself as the ship responds to his every command. Once again, he asks Annabeth why she was so mistrustful of Tyson at first, and Annabeth admits that she, Luke, and Thalia encountered a Cyclops when they were on the run as children. Annabeth explains that the three of them got separated in a Cyclops’s lair, and that she, at seven years old, almost got them all killed because she hesitated to stab the Cyclops after he used his magical abilities to talk to her in her father’s voice. It was the Cyclops’s fault that they took such a long time to get to Camp Half-Blood and, as a result, all the monsters that had been chasing them had time to catch up. She feels that Thalia would still be alive if it were not for the time they spent trapped in the Cyclops’s lair. Percy tries to assure Annabeth that Thalia’s fate is not her fault.

Later, he dreams about Kronos taunting him from inside his golden sarcophagus. In his dream, Percy approaches the sarcophagus and is soon joined by a girl with punk-style clothes. The girl draws her sword and opens the sarcophagus. Percy hears Kronos’s cruel laugh, and the girl screams in horror as the sarcophagus engulfs her in a blast of a golden light.

Annabeth wakes Percy; they are about to pass the island of the Sirens, sea nymphs who lure sailors to their deaths with their song. Annabeth wants Percy to tie her to the mast because she wants to hear what the song sounds like. She explains that the Sirens’ song tells you truths about yourself and that you “become wiser” if you survive hearing it. Percy reluctantly agrees and ties Annabeth to the mast while plugging his own ears. The Queen Anne’s Revenge approaches the Sirens, and Annabeth enters their trance. She immediately starts to beg for Percy to release her but he refuses, even though it pains him to do so. Percy looks away from the sobbing Annabeth, unable to bear it, but she is gone when he looks back a few minutes later. He realizes that he forgot to disarm Annabeth before he tied her up, and that she cut herself free.

Percy sees Annabeth swimming to her death and jumps in after her. He grabs her and is able to see the vision that the Sirens have created for her as soon as they make contact; in it, Annabeth having a family picnic in an idyllic version of Manhattan (one that Annabeth clearly designed herself) with her reunited parents and a reformed Luke. Percy manages to break Annabeth out of the trance and she immediately starts to cry. The ship sails past the island of the Sirens, and Annabeth admits the Sirens told her that her fatal flaw is hubris (that is, deadly pride) because she thinks that she can “do things better than anyone else… even the gods.” She encourages Percy to figure out his own fatal flaw, as it could get him killed one day, but their conversation is interrupted when they land on Polyphemus’s island.

Chapter 14

Percy is stunned by the island’s beauty, and Annabeth says that it is caused by the Golden Fleece. The two heroes determine that the island is filled with large sheep that are actually carnivorous. They then notice the other lifeboat from the CSS Birmingham is washed up on the island’s shore. They decide to moor their ship on the back side of the island and climb a 200-foot cliff to avoid the sheep. As they make it to the top, they hear voices coming from below and realize they are on a ledge above Polyphemus’s cave. They see Grover (still in the wedding dress) standing close to Polyphemus, and are stunned to see Clarisse hanging upside down over a pot of boiling water so that Polyphemus can cook her. Percy and Annabeth watch in horror as Clarisse unknowingly exposes Grover’s identity, and an enraged Polyphemus decides to eat Grover and marry Clarisse instead. Polyphemus leaves the cave to graze his sheep, and promises to return at sundown.

Percy and Annabeth attempt to move the large boulder barring entrance to Polyphemus’s cave, but it is too heavy. They realize that only Polyphemus can do so and decide to sneak in with the sheep when Polyphemus lets them in at sundown. Annabeth dons her invisibility cap and Percy rides on the underside of a sheep, and they both manage to make it inside. Annabeth invisibly taunts Polyphemus by referring to herself as “Nobody” (the name that Odysseus used to trick Polyphemus before blinding him, as depicted in Homer’s Odyssey) while Percy searches for Grover and Clarisse. He finally locates them when they suddenly hear Annabeth cry out in fear.

Read a full book summary of the Odyssey.