Zoë Nightshade (Percy Jackson)
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| Zoё Nightshade | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | The Titan's Curse |
| Last appearance | The Titan's Curse |
| Information | |
| Olympian Parent | Atlas (Titan) |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | Over 2000 years old (as of The Titan's Curse) |
| Date of birth | Unknown |
| Date of death | 2007 |
| Allegiance | The Hunters of Artemis, The Olympians, Camp Half-Blood |
| Hair colour | Dark |
| Eye colour | Brown |
| Family | Atlas (father) Hesperides (sisters) Pleione (mother) |
| Portrayed by | Unknown |
| Created by | Rick Riordan |
Zoё Nightshade is a fictional character in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
Contents |
[edit] Character history
Zoë Nightshade is the daughter of the Titan Atlas (also known as The General) →and a sea goddess, Pleione. She was once one of the five Hesperides, who guarded the tree of golden apples with the dragon Ladon. She helped the hero Hercules, whom she fell in love with, to steal an apple from the tree. She also gave him the sword Anaklusmos (known in English as Riptide), which she conjured from a hairpin she wore. When Hercules betrayed her, Zoë joined the Hunters of Artemis to be done with men. Though she vowed never to say the hero's name again, as she was dying she told Percy Jackson, “You are not like Hercules. I am honored you carry this sword [Riptide].”
[edit] Personality
Zoë speaks very stiffly as Percy describes it. During the beginning of the story she treats the boys with a slightly condescending nature. She later treats the boys on the quest with more respect though is still wary. Though she complements Percy when nearing the end of her life her very last word is "stars."
[edit] Appearance
Zoë is described as — to quote Percy — “tall and graceful with coppery colored skin. Unlike the other girls [Hunters], she had a silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair, so she looked like some kind of Persian princess.” Later he states that “she had dark brown eyes and a slightly upturned nose. With her silver circlet and proud expression, she looked so much like royalty that I had to resist the urge to sit up straight and say,‘Yes, ma'am’”. Near the end of the book, when Zoë's sisters appear, Percy thinks that Zoë is actually very pretty, though he had never realized it until he saw her with the Hesperides.
[edit] In the books
[edit] The Titan's Curse
Zoë's first appearance in the series is as the lieutenant of Artemis's Hunt (a group of maiden huntresses who are immortal — unless they perish in battle, which “is highly unlikely”). She dislikes being in the company of men, especially Percy. When Artemis leaves to find the monster that threatens Olympus, Zoë and the rest of the Hunters (including the newest one, Bianca di Angelo) go to Camp Half-Blood with Percy, Thalia, and Grover Underwood.
At camp, Percy asks the Oracle (an old, shriveled mummy in the attic of the Big House who is actually the spirit of Delphi) for a help finding Annabeth, but he gets no response. Later, at the end of the game of Capture the Flag, the Oracle unexpectedly walks from the attic to the game area to speak to Zoë. She delivers this prophecy:
Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,
One shall be lost in the land without rain,
The bane of Olympus shows the trail,
Campers and Hunters combined prevail,
The Titan's curse must one withstand,
And one shall perish by a parent's hand.
Zoë, Bianca, Grover, Thalia, and a Hunter named Phoebe plan to go on this quest, much to Percy's disappointment. However, Phoebe is poisoned by a T-shirt dipped in centaur's blood; though it is not fatal, it makes her too ill to go. Later it is revealed that Aphrodite was behind the poisoning. The remaining four depart on the quest, and Percy later joins them.
Bianca is presumed to have died in the desert (the land without rain), where she gives her life to stop a prototype of the automaton Talos. As the remaining questers climb Mount Tamalpais, they meet Zoë's sisters, the Hesperides, and the dragon Ladon. As Zoë talks to Ladon to distract him while the others pass the tree, the dragon bites her; though the bite is poisonous, she insists that she is fine and continues up the mountain. At the summit they discover Artemis has been forced to take on Atlas's curse of holding up the sky. Zoë battles with her father and is killed in accordance with the prophecy (And one shall perish by a parent's hand).
A blow from Atlas sends her flying into the black ruins of Mount Orthrys's palace, the home of the Titans. As she dies in Artemis's arms, she says the stars are beautiful, so Artemis uses her powers to make Zoe into a new constellation.
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