Keep Calm and Save the World with a Pen

“This is a pen. This is a pen!”

-Percy Jackson (The Lightning Thief)

               

Anaklusmos – it is the Greek translation for Riptide. Riptide is Percy’s main weapon in his battles.  Chiron gave Riptide to Percy after Poseidon claimed him as his son. The sword took form as a normal ballpoint pen. It’s just a simple, disposable pen with Anaklusmos written on its side. However, when uncapped, becomes a three-foot long, leaf-shaped sword made of celestial bronze. Crazy, isn’t it?

Before Chiron gave Anaklusmos to Percy, the original owner of the sword was the famous son of Zeus: Hercules. Before it looked like a ballpoint pen, it was Zoe’s hair clip. It’s just a simple hair clip. Zoe is one of the beautiful immortal Hesperides who are daughters of the powerful titan, Atlas. In The Titan’s Curse, Percy dreamed of Zoe giving the hair clip to Hercules, which turned into a bronze sword in his hands. That’s how he knew where his sword came from. Zoe gave it to Hercules to fight the  dragon Ladon on his twelve labors, but after the fight Hercules didn’t acknowledge Zoe’s help so she had to face his father Atlas and  her sisters’ anger for giving Hercules the sword. That betrayal made Zoe hate male demigods and decided to join the Hunters of Artemis to keep away from them.

Because the sword was from Atlas’ daughter, Riptide became heavy in Percy’s hands when he was face-to-face with the titan. Percy failed to defeat Atlas and forced to hold the sky to let Artemis fight him. The sword is perfect in Percy’s grip as it gets its power from the ocean and Percy is a son of Poseidon so they really make a good connection. The sword is made of celestial bronze, which is known to be very deadly to monsters and immortals. But don’t worry, if you’re no immortal or demigod, you’d be safe. The blade will just pass right through you, leaving no scratch at all! What makes the sword very interesting is that even when lost, misplaced, or simply thrown away, Riptide will just return to Percy’s pocket as an ordinary ballpoint pen. Percy won’t have to worry about missing weapons...unless he has no pockets or that would really mean trouble. Its only drawback is that even if it takes form as a pen, it can’t be used for writing. Uncapping the pen would simply just free Riptide from its disguise. 

So my co-demigods, be careful with sharp objects. Another word of warning: be extra careful of sharp objects disguising as safe and harmless objects. You don't want to die because you did not know that a mobile phone was a scythe when you pressed its call button. That would be the most ridiculous death ever.