We love a bit of foreshadowing when it comes to books, so we thought, since we’ve completed our third reading of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief we do just that. We only came up with this as we were going through the last couple of chapters.
A few moments of foreshadowing in The Lightning Thief stood out, though we had to Google others. We also have to blame (with love) the television series because it, too, did foreshadowing in its first season, especially at the end.
This post will contain spoilers for the book, and The Lightning Thief’s foreshadowing moments are in no particular order.
House of Hades
Towards the end of The Lightning Thief, there is a bit of foreshadowing when Percy, Annabeth and Grover enter the Underworld. They venture to the House of Hades, the realm of well, Hades, the third of the Big Three.
What makes this so significant is that in the Heroes of Olympus book, House of Hades, for Percy and Annabeth to get out of Tartarus, they need to find the Doors of Death, which leads them to the House of Hades.
The Fall Into Tartarus
When Luke gives Percy the cursed winged shoes, the shoes start pulling Grover towards a pit that is established to be Tartarus. This actually foreshadows an event that happens much later in the series. During the Heroes of Olympus book, The Mark of Athena, Annabeth is pulled into Tartarus after her showdown with Arachne.
Percy, having been separated from her for months due to the meddling of Hera/Juno, voluntarily falls into Tartarus with her.
Annabeth’s Meeting With Arachne And The Fear of Spiders
Mechanical spiders are unleashed from Hephaestus ‘ trap during the search for Ares’ shield in the waterpark. This prompts Annabeth to scream her head off. This is due to her (and her siblings)’s fear of spiders. This foreshadows a moment in Mark of Athena where Annabeth meets Arachne, the reason why she and her siblings fear spiders.
The Constant References To Thalia Grace
Throughout The Lightning Thief, there is a feeling of foreshadowing, with constant references to Thalia Grace, the daughter of Zeus, who was turned into a pine tree. She sacrificed herself to protect Grover, Annabeth, and Luke from monsters on Half-Blood Hill.
Thalia does appear in a vision to Percy in The Lightning Thief before she makes her first physical appearance at the end of Sea of Monsters.
Percy’s Recklessness
A post on Quora pointed this one out. The Lightning Thief does an outstanding job at setting Percy up as a character, especially his reckless trait.
Percy is likely reckless because he wants to fit as much into his life as possible before he thinks he’ll die when he turns sixteen.
Medusa References Her Sisters
One of the most fascinating characters in The Lightning Thief is Medusa. We did a whole post on her television backstory. During her one appearance in the book, she references her two sisters as dead. This is a foreshadowing of The Son of Neptune, the second Heroes of Olympus book when Percy, with memory loss, faces off against her sisters.
The Lotus Hotel, Nico And Bianca
The Lotus Hotel itself is a nod to Nico and his sister Bianca in The Titan’s Curse, as they were trapped in the hotel while Annabeth, Percy and Grover were there. The television series references the Di Angelos twice. The first was the name of restaurant Sally references in the first episode. The second was a little less obvious. When Percy and his friends were in the Casino, there is a quick voice cameo of Nico calling to Bianca. We had no idea it was there until we read the We Take A Zebra To Vegas episode page on the Riordan Wiki.
It is referenced in a later book that Nico and Bianca had been put in the Hotel 70 years earlier hence the reason why they never aged past 12 and 10 years old.
Annabeth’s True Feelings Towards Luke
From the beginning, it has been implied that Annabeth had a crush on Luke. In The Last Olympian, we learn how she actually felt. As Luke lies dying on Olympus, he asks if Annabeth loves him. She responds that he had been her brother but nothing more. It’s likely that her feelings for him changed after he chose to side with Kronos.
Luke’s Pending Death
The Quora post linked above mentions something else, too. Grover mentions seeing the Fates cut their yarn, meaning someone’s life force is about to end. The Quora post says it might be a subtle reference to Luke’s death because the battle where Percy must decide the fate of the world (no pun intended) is the one where Luke dies.
