Percy Jackson's Greek Gods (Percy Jackson and the Olympians companion #5.5) - Rick Riordan Page 0,6

guy Titans started thinking, Hey, Dad had Gaea for a wife. Who are we going to have for wives? Then they looked at the lady Titans and thought, Hmm…

I know. You’re screaming, GROSS! The brothers wanted to marry their own sisters?!

Yeah. I find that pretty disgusting myself, but here’s the thing: Titans didn’t see family relationships the same way we do.

First off, like I said before, the rules of behavior were a lot looser back then. Also, there weren’t many choices when it came to marriage partners. You couldn’t simply log into TitansMatch and find your perfect soul mate.

Most important, immortals are just different from humans. They live forever, more or less. They have cool powers. They have ichor instead of blood and DNA, so they aren’t concerned about bloodlines not mixing well. Because of that, they don’t see the whole brother-sister thing in the same way. You and the girl you like might have been born of the same mom, but once you grew up and you were both adults, you wouldn’t necessarily think of her as your sister anymore.

That’s my theory. Or maybe the Titans were all just freaks. I’ll let you decide.

Anyway, not all the brothers married all the sisters, but here’s the rundown.

The oldest girl was Theia. If you wanted her attention, all you had to do was wave something shiny in her face. She loved sparkly things and bright scenic views. Every morning she would dance with happiness when daylight returned. She would climb mountains just so she could see for miles around. She would even delve underground and bring out precious gems, using her magic powers to make them gleam and sparkle. Theia is the one who gave gold its luster and made diamonds glitter.

She became the Titan of clear sight. Because she was all about bright and glittery, she ended up marrying Hyperion, the lord of light. As you can imagine, they got along great, though how they got any sleep with Hyperion glowing all night and Theia giggling, “Shiny! Shiny!” I don’t know.

Her sister Themis? Totally different. She was quiet and thoughtful and never tried to draw attention to herself, always wearing a simple white shawl over her hair. She realized from an early age that she had a natural sense of right and wrong. She understood what was fair and what wasn’t. Whenever she was in doubt, she claimed that she could draw wisdom straight from the earth. I don’t think she meant from Gaea, though, because Gaea wasn’t really hung up on right and wrong.

Anyway, Themis had a good reputation among her brothers and sisters. She could mediate even the worst arguments. She became the Titan of natural law and fairness. She didn’t marry any of her six brothers, which just proves how wise she was.

Third sister: Tethys, and I promise this is the last “T” name for the girls, because even I’m getting confused. She loved rivers, springs, and fresh running water of any kind. She was very kind, always offering her siblings something to drink, though the others got tired of hearing that the average Titan needs twenty-four large glasses of water a day to stay hydrated. At any rate, Tethys thought of herself as the nursemaid for the whole world, since all living things need to drink. She ended up marrying Oceanus, which was kind of a no-brainer. “Hey, you like water? I like water too! We should totally go out!”

Phoebe, the fourth sister, lived right in the geographic center of the world, which for the Greeks meant the Oracle of Delphi—a sacred spring where you could sometimes hear whispers of the future if you knew how to listen. The Greeks called this place the omphalos, literally the belly button of the earth, though they never specified whether it was an innie or an outie.

Phoebe was one of the first people to figure out how to hear the voices of Delphi, but she wasn’t a gloomy, mysterious sort of fortune-teller. Her name meant bright, and she always looked on the positive side of things. Her prophecies tended to be like fortune cookies—only good stuff. Which was fine, I guess, if you only wanted to hear good news, but not so great if you had a serious problem. Like if you were going to die tomorrow, Phoebe might just tell you, “Oh, um, I foresee that you won’t have to worry about your math test next week!”

Phoebe ended up marrying Koios, the northern dude, because he also had