Apollo

Apollo symbolizes how painful guilt can be and the need to recognize and overcome it. Throughout the novel, Apollo struggles with the belief that everything that happens to the people around him is his fault. Jason and Crest’s death, in particular, hits Apollo hard, as he believes Jason and Piper would have survived and had happier lives if he had not needed them for his quest. Therefore, his guilt and the way that it pushes him to remember the lives lost is the most important theme in the novel.

Meg

Meg is a representation of depression and the difficulties overcoming a past filled with abuse. Apollo tells the reader numerous times that Meg suffered greatly at the hands of her stepfather, Nero. This shows in the way she reacts to both her old home (by fainting on sight) and the reason she avoids other people...