The Sons of Light and Dark

There are Demigods in Tennesse?

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"One of the only places that have to do with Greek mythology in Nashville," dad answered. "The Parthenon."

"Doesn't that have a copy of the Athena Parthenos?" Lee asked. "Travis was telling me the other day that Annabeth had to look for that during the Giant War."

"Es definitely a copy," I said. "The real thing is hidden in Rome. I've seen the real one. It's menacing, to be honest."

"Athena is menacing," dad commented. "And Nike is an annoying B-list goddess."

"That's a little rude," I said crossly. "What'd she do to you?"

"She's one of the ones who started those cursed games," he explained. "The Olympics. Named after Olympus because mortals wanted their own, I guess. Or they wanted demigods to compete to see who was the best. The whole thing was a mistake, either way. Too much bloodshed for me and Artemis."

"Bet Ares loved it," I said.

"He was one of the Romans' patron gods. The other being Jupiter, or Zeus."

"Where's Hestia in all this?" Bianca asked. "Or my father?"

"Hestia was...downsized because of the Romans," dad explained carefully. "Vesta was never a big part of the Romans. She was mainly prayed to by the wives who cared about their families. In Greece, every house had a hearth in honor of her. Family was important to the Greeks—still is, for the most part. Hades...his Roman name is Pluto. He's an outcast of the gods, only feared by the Romans. But he's at least worshipped more the Poseidon, or Neptune. The Romans feared the sea, for some reason. They aren't the brightest bunch."

"And Greeks are?" Lee asked.

"Athenian and Spartan strategies won wars," I argued. "You've seen the Athena children plan with the Ares and Apollo cabins. The Romans are all logic and fact, except for when it comes to their mythology. They need someone in charge to fight. With us Greeks, someone could just shout, 'let's fight stuff' and we'd be good to go. I always disagreed with Jason about this. He thinks the Greeks have no plans whatsoever, but I think that we Greeks are better strategists than the Romans. I might be a little biased, though."

"No, I think you are right." Dad helped me. "In that final battle against Gaea, as Hermes tells me, Percy literally said, 'let's fight stuff' and every Greek immediately understood what to do. The Romans needed Reyna to shout orders at them for them to know what to do. They need their centurions."

"So Greeks are better?" Bianca summed up.

"The Greeks have been around longer and have more experience," dad corrected. "Neither is better in every way like the Roman think they are."

We stayed quiet until we found the Parthenon. Dad parked the car and we waited until it was closed. Then we filed out and looked up at the building.

"The original is better," dad muttered before walking up. Lee and I shared a look before following with Bianca.

We snuck inside and began to look around for any clues. I stopped to stare at the Athena Parthenos, which dominated the room we were in. I walked over to it and checked it out. I walked around it in circles, looking it up and down. Eventually, I decided to climb it to see if there was anything we couldn't see without a bird's eye view. I crouched on top of her crown/helmet thing and looked around.

"Anything interesting?" I heard a voice say from beside me. I shrieked and accidentally jumped off the statue. Smooth, huh? I didn't think so.

"Shit!" I screamed as I plummeted downwards. I grunted when I hit something soft and plastic-y. It disappeared from underneath me and I hit the ground with a louder grunt. I stared up at who had scared me off of the statue.