Mythology in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series

Abstract

This master's thesis focuses on the usage of Greek mythology in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. The first part of the thesis classifies the series as belonging to children's literature, and subsequently, it also discusses it in terms of fantasy and adventure genre, and also defines the term mythology as it is an essential aspect of the series. The second part of the thesis discusses myth criticism, focusing specifically on Northrop Frye's Theory of Myths which is then used to analyze the series. The analysis is divided into three parts, based on Frye's theory, the first one focuses on structure, the second one on characters, and the third one on phases. Simultaneously, the way in which Riordan adapts, modernizes etc. Greek mythology in Percy Jackson series is analyzed.