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Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods was SUCH a fun read!
If you’re a Percy Jackson fan, this is definitely a recommended read. Seeing all of the classic characters we love back together for another quest made for such a great book.
If you’re in need of a chapter-by-chapter refresher, or just want a general summary of the story, you’re in luck!
Below is my complete Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods summary.
And don’t forget to stick around after the summary, too! My review and thoughts on this book are at the very end.
Chapter One
The book kicks off with Percy in yet another new school, Alternative High School (AHS), on the first day of his senior year.
Percy is feeling reluctant about having to start at a brand new school.
Thanks to Hera and Gea for the events of The Heroes of Olympus series, Percy is a bit behind educationally but determined to make it up and get into New Rome University and go to school with Annabeth.
Percy is called into the guidance counselor’s office, where he is met by the non-mortal counselor, Eudora.
Eudora is a Nereid, and she informs Percy that he needs to accomplish three quests for three divine recommendation letters from three different gods.
The chapter ends with Percy saying that if his dad, Poseidon, really wants to help him, he should talk to him in person.
Poseidon, it turns out, agrees, and the floor under Percy’s feet turns into water, and he is swept into the Atlantic Ocean.
Chapter Two
Percy is flushed all the way to Poseidon’s summer villa, where he tells Percy that because he is not supposed to exist (by being a kid of the Big Three), he is technically not eligible for New Rome University.
Poseidon tells him that he made the deal with Zeus for the three letters of recommendation, that there is no way around it, and that, in fact, Zeus wanted it to be 25 letters. Sheesh!
Chapter Three
Percy tells Annabeth about the whole needing three quests and three letters back at his New York City apartment.
Percy and Annabeth share a family dinner with Sally and Paul, and even Grover shows up with fresh strawberries from Camp Half-Blood!
When Grover learns about Percy’s quests, he immediately offers his help and is excited about getting the OG gang getting back together!
Chapter Four
Percy meets the first god, looking for a favor in trade for a letter of rec on the F train the next day.
Ganymede, the cupbearer to Zeus, asks Percy for his services. The Chalice of the gods is missing, and Ganymede wants Percy to find it.
Chapter Five
Ganymede says that the two gods at the top of his suspect list for stealing the cup are Hebe and Iris.
Thankfully for Percy and company, these two goddesses hang out in Manhattan, so he doesn’t have to go too far to question them!
Chapter Six
Percy and Annabeth are led by Grover to Times Square, where he shows them a store called Hebe’s Jeebies. Grover has been here several times before for licorice, of course!
Once inside, Percy is on the lookout for whether the place is a trap or not, but the trio are met by a labyrinth of arcade games and candy.
They quickly realize that what is being sold here is nostalgia when Annabeth finds a favorite game from her childhood, and the candy reminds Percy of his mom’s old job.
They find the goddess Hebe (as well as a chicken coupe [her sacred animal, duh]) at a karaoke bar watching boomers sing.
Chapter Seven
Percy, Annabeth, and Grover sit down for pizza with Hebe, and Percy is swept up by the smell of the pizza in a moment of nostalgia that takes him right back to the third grade.
As they eat their pizza, Hebe questions if Percy is here for a favor and criticizes him for turning down the offer of immortality by Zeus.
Hebe keeps going on and on about how getting old is THE WORST, and as she talks, the demigods start to notice that the karaoke boomers are actually getting younger as they sing.
Hebe explains that, “nostalgia is the doorway back to youth,” and that she is showing them how to open it. All the attractions at Hebe Jeebies take time off people’s lives, making them younger.
Hebe offers to give back some of Percy’s youth, but he declines and asks her if she knows anything about Ganymede.
Hebe realizes that Percy is asking this because Ganymede sent him, which means he has lost the Chalice.
When Hebe realizes they are there to see if SHE stole it, she flips her lid and tells Percy that she will start the process of aging on him as he bursts into a storm of rainbow glitter.
Chapter Eight
When Percy wakes up, he finds that he, Annabeth, and Grover are nine years younger. They’re all eight years old!
They begin to panic, and they go to find Hebe by asking the manager, Sparky, where the goddess is.
Sparky asks if they are making an age-based complaint. When they say yes, the chickens I mentioned in the last chapter are unleashed on them and begin to chase the trio.
Chapter Nine
Percy, Annabeth, and Grover run from the killer chickens until they barricade themselves into a plastic play tube.
In the play structure, Grover reminds Annabeth that Hebe married Hercules when he became a god.
Hebe has a sacred day that Hebe’s chickens and Hercules roosters are brought together on Hebe’s holy day.
Annabeth comes up with a plan, and she and Percy get a chick from the chicken coup and run back to the Karaoke bar.
Chapter Ten
Percy and Annabeth sing a duet of Jealous Guy by John Lennon as an apology to Hebe, keeping the chick and the backup plan.
As Percy and Annabeth get really into the second verse, Hebe shows up and begs them to stop.
Hebe doesn’t agree to forgive them, but Percy notices that Annabeth is stalling Hebe, and then he figures out what the chick is for!
Hebe has to be the youngest in the room, and slowly her magic reacts to the baby chick, and she starts to turn into a baby.
Annabeth picks up baby Hebe and asks her to call off her chickens (she wouldn’t want to make an age-based complaint after all), turn them back to their normal ages, and tell them what she knows about the Chalice.
In turn, they will take the baby chick from the room so she can un-baby herself.
Hebe agrees, but she tells them they won’t like what information she has about the stolen Chalice.
Chapter Eleven
Hebe tells them that they will need to visit Iris at her farmer’s market in front of the Lincoln Center on Saturday.
Iris is the only other goddess to have been a cupbearer, and Hebe thinks she could have stolen it.
Percy is relieved that he doesn’t have to travel far for the next step of his quest and that he will actually have the rest of the week to finish his homework. The three go their separate ways to their own homes.
Chapter Twelve
Ganymede meets Percy at lunchtime at his school, and Percy updates him about the plan to go to Iris’s farmer’s market on Saturday.
Percy and Annabeth talk on Friday night, and Annabeth tells Percy that she has a plan for meeting Iris and that she already talked to a child of Iris to introduce them to their mom.
Percy, however, doesn’t like the idea of this particular child of Iris.
Chapter Thirteen
The child of Iris that is helping them in Blanche!
Blanche is an artsy-fartsy monochrome-loving girl from SoHo who Grover thinks is the coolest artist EVER.
Annabeth made a deal with Blanche that Grover would pose for her photography in exchange for an introduction to her goldy parent.
Iris is trying very hard to get Blanche’s respect and love, so when Blanche tells her mom to listen to the demigods, not zap them, and give them information on the Chalice of the gods, she listens.
Chapter Fourteen
Iris listens to the demigod’s quest so far, and she has a hunch about who has taken the Chalice of the gods.
However, while she looks into this hunch, she wants Percy and Co. to clean her kerykeion and restore it to its former glory.
It turns out the only way to clean Iris’s magic staff is in the River Elisson. The actual River Elisson is located in Greece, but the mythical River Elisson could be anywhere the god of that river wants, and our demigods have no clue where that is…
Percy says he will ask his Nereid guidance counselor on Monday if she knows where they can find the river.
Chapter Fifteen
Percy sits in Eudora’s office and catches her up on the quest. When he asks her about the location of the River Elisson, she is hesitant to tell him out of fear of no longer getting invited to Elisson’s yoga classes.
Her workaround for this conflict is to flush Percy to the location of the river, which turns out to be Yonkers.
Once in Yonkers, Percy sees the Saw Mill River Muskrat Habitat, and when he takes a closer look, he finds a talon of a fury (which bathes in the Elisson).
Not wanting to encounter a fury (also he doesn’t have the actual staff on him), Percy leaves Yonkers and walks to the train where he will have to take the long ride back to the Upper East Side.
Chapter Sixteen
Percy returns to Yonkers the following day with Grover and Annabeth, this time with the kerykeion of Iris.
As they enter the Saw Mill River Muskrat Habitat, they quickly notice the hundreds of snakes in the pools of water around them.
The plan they come up with is that Grover will go off to create a distraction, and Annabeth and Percy will go find a clean pool of water to clean Iris’s staff.
Grover will play his pipes if he needs to calm the snakes down, which will also be the signal that they gotta leave!
Annabeth and Percy find the perfect clean pool of water just as they hear Grover playing his music, and Annabeth pushes Percy into the water with the staff.
Chapter Seventeen
Percy falls into the icy water, holding onto the staff. He takes in his surroundings, and he finds that the water is the clearest turquoise water he has ever seen.
As he watches the sludge start to fall off the staff and into the water, he meets Elisson in all his man-bun glory.
Elisson is PISSED Percy broke all his rules and dirtied his water without even asking for permission to enter his pools. Percy tries to talk himself out of this one but fails, and Elisson starts drowning Percy with his water!
Chapter Eighteen
Elisson pummels Percy with his water and river sludge. To save himself, Percy uses his water powers, and the rest of this is a bit of a tidal wave.
This wave, however, cleans the river right up, looking WAY better than before, and leaves Elisson a little shaken up.
Iris’s staff also got a good rinse, and Annabeth gives Elisson some herbal tea, and the two demigods head downstream to save Grover from the snakes that are chasing him.
Chapter Nineteen
Percy runs through the fields making rainbows with the staff of Iris per Annabeth’s instructions.
Percy is the new distraction, using the rainbows to draw attention away from Grover as Annabeth rescues him with her invisibility Yankee cap.
Percy is having fun making rainbows and having all the snakes follow him. However, he trips and ends up surrounded by a TON of serpents.
Percy begins to think that this is the place he dies, and he just wishes he could tell Annabeth how much he loves her.
The staff starts to pull him into the air, and he remembers that it is a messenger staff and can fly him to Annabeth to deliver his message of loveeee.
Percy, via flying staff, lands right next to Annabeth and Grover at the mouth of the cave, and they all leave Yonkers and head back to Manhattan.
Chapter Twenty
Percy and Annabeth take the staff back to Iris, and in turn, she gives them the information she has.
Iris says that if she is correct, the Chalice of the gods is in Greenwich Village and in the possession of someone who now goes by Gary.
Who Gary actually is, we don’t know yet, BUT we do know that it is someone who hates Ganymede! Iris also gives the demigods a vial of pure nectar (for $5) to help them find the Chalice once they are in Greenwich Village.
Chapter Twenty-One
As Percy watches his teammates compete at the AHS swim team meet, he and Grover discuss the cloud nymphs who have noticed a weird energy in Washington Square Park.
They make plans to check out Washington Square Park and see if this Gary person/thing/all-powerful being is located there.
Grover tells Percy that he’s worried about Annabeth and Percy leaving him behind in New York when they go off to college at the end of the school year.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Annabeth is over for dinner with the Jackson-Blofis family. At dinner, Sally says she has something to tell Percy: she and Paul are having a baby!!!
This chapter is so cute and feel-good hehe.
Percy is very excited to meet his new sibling, but sad that he will be away at college for the beginning of this little guy’s life.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Percy attends another day of school at AHS, where he visits his guidance counselor, who is not helping on the Gary front.
Eudora flushes herself away from her office to avoid giving Percy any information about who Gary might be.
Gaymande revisits Percy at lunch, and Percy really starts to feel sorry for this dude. Zeus did him really dirty by snatching him up to Olympus to be his servant and making him immortal just because he was super hot!
Percy tries to use the Greeky mythology book in the school library to find out who TF Gary is, but still no luck!
Chapter Twenty-Four
Annabeth breaks into Percy’s room bright and early to wake him up. She tells him that she learned some important information about the concentrated nectar from Juniper, Grover’s dryad girlfriend.
The concentrated nectar will make the demigod’s pass out if they smell it, so they will need to plug their noses when they start looking for Gary.
Percy gets ready for the day, and he and Annabeth head out to Washington Square Park.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Once the trio make it to Washington Square Park (and had some mochi donuts), they plug their noses with some menthol and tissue. Then, they split up, each following a droplet of nectar through the park.
Percy notices that time is moving slowly around him.
It reminds him of Kronos’ power to slow/stop time. As he’s thinking this, he hears a voice behind him: “It’s similar, yes.” The voice of COURSE belongs to Gary, or Geras!
Gary is the Greek god of old age. He stole the Chalice of the gods because he is offended that the Chalice gives immortality. He wants to embarrass Ganymede because his whole being-a-mortal-who-now-won’t-age thing irks him!
He tells Percy that if he can beat him in wrestling, he will give him the magic cup.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Percy negotiates terms and conditions with Gary for this wrestling match because Gary being a god is not exactly fair…
They agree that Percy winning would be getting Gary to bend one of his knees, and Percy loses if Gary literally destroys Percy.
Percy also gets Gary to agree to fight just him and leave Grover and Annabeth out of it, as well as to also set them free of his slow-mo old man power.
Annabeth tries to get Percy not to fight Geras because Hercules was only able to get Geras to come to a standstill. After all, aging is inevitable!
Percy does feel like he might be on the wrong side of this fight, because he kinda gets Gary’s point about the gods having too much power by being able to make people immortal. But whatever!
Gary and Percy start to fight, and Percy almost gets his face pushed into the pavement.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Percy is losing this fight, and Annabeth and Grover start to sports commentate.
Percy is trying to think of what he could possibly use to defeat old age. Annabeth tries to help Percy in the fight, which pisses Gary off, and he threatens to kill them all if Annabeth or Grover get involved.
Gary has Percy by both shoulders and is pushing him up against a tetherball poll when Percy thinks about how this isn’t how he wants to die.
He wants to grow old and grey with Annabeth. After he has this thought, he feels a surge in strength in his legs!
Percy thinks about Annabeth with grey hair and Grover as an old satyr with creaky old hooves and is struck with the thought, “I couldn’t beat old age. But what if I embraced him?”
Percy gives Gary a big hug and says, “I love you, bro.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Gray freezes in the hug as Percy thinks about embracing old age.
Gary gives up fighting Percy and starts crying as Annabeth watches on with pride for Percy’s cleverness. Gary says that old age is never embraced, and it’s been a long time since he has gotten a hug.
Percy tells Gary that he never wants to drink from the Chalice because he wants to live a full life, not be trapped in one age forever. Gary snaps his fingers, and the Chalice appears.
He gives it to Percy, telling him that Percy has given him new hope that not everyone will turn their back on old age right before he disappears.
A pink hula hoop falls from the sky, and Annabeth says that the hoop is a symbol of Ganymede.
Attached to the hoop is a note saying that it is a distress call and that Ganymede is stuck on Olympus and needs the cup ASAP because Zeus is having a feast right now!
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Zeus is having brunch for his mom, and Percy and Grover take a taxi to Manhattan with Annabeth’s invisibility cap.
The plan is for Percy to use the side door of the kitchen, where a cloud nymph Grover knows will let him in as Grover creates a distraction.
All the while, Percy will wear the cap to get past minor gods and spirits, though it won’t work on the Olympians on the sixth hundredth floor.
When Percy gets to the front desk, he starts to get nervous that he won’t be able to get past the century guardian, the door to the elevator.
This is when Grover begins his distraction and starts using Ganymedes hoop to Hulahoop right in the middle of the lobby while playing “Get Lucky” on his panpipes.
Percy snags the keycard from behind the desk and uses it to enter the elevator to the six hundredth floor. Percy sprints to Mount Olympus as fast as he can, but the cup is mad heavy.
Chapter Thirty
Percy follows Grover’s directions to get to Zeus’ palace, and he finds a wall of jasmine and the secret door to the kitchen where Naomi (the cloud nymph) works. Percy tells Naomi that he is a friend of Grover’s, and she lets him in.
Percy is confused as to why the gods would have a kitchen full of servants to cook for them when they could just use magic. However, he realizes that it’s because they would want to be served because they LOVE attention.
Naomi points Percy in the direction of Ganymede. Percy looks through the kitchen door into the dining room of Zeus’ palace.
He looks at all the brunch guests and sees that all the guest’s cups are empty, so he is not too late!
Percy gets Ganymede’s attention, but Zeus grabs onto Ganymede’s arm, instructing him to stay and listen to his story about Rhea. Then, they will all toast to her!
Percy now knows that Ganymede can’t come to him but that he will have to bring the Chalice to Ganymede.
Chapter Thirty-One
Percy gets one of the dryad servers, Barbara (in exchange for a meet-and-greet with Annabeth), to hide him in the pastry cart and wheel him close to Ganymede.
Percy lifts up the tablecloth of the cart to see if he can crawl to Ganymede when he makes dead eye contact with the lion sitting at Rhea’s feet.
The lion roars, and Percy drops the tablecloth after the gods just laugh at the lion. Zeus keeps talking, and Percy lifts the cloth again to see the status of the cat.
This time, though, he makes eye contact with Athena, who has leaned down to look at the lion.
Athena and Percy have a bit of an eye contact conversation. She says to Ganymede that he should take the pastry cart to the kitchen because there is no clotted cream for the scones.
In the kitchen, Percy hands the Chalice back to Ganymede, and he gives Percy a magic piece of paper that says once Percy dictated the quest, his signature will appear at the bottom, and Percy will have one of three letters to get into college!
Chapter Thirty-Two
Percy takes the elevator back down to the lobby with a bag of leftovers from Naomi. Percy reunites with Grover on the street and tells him all that went down in Zeus’ dining room.
Grover tells Percy that he better attend school because he has already missed at least two classes. Percy takes the F train to school, where he is going to have to explain his tardiness.
However, when Percy gets to school, Poseidon had called the school to let them know that his son will be late for school.
Poseidon tells Percy that he thinks he is a true hero for helping Ganymede.
He’s proud of him for risking his life for a cupbearer he barely knew, not because of the letter or to save the world, but just because that’s who Percy is.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Percy goes to see Eudora, and he tells her about how he got his first letter!
She reminds him that he still needs two more letters, but for now, he can relax. Percy takes a blue Jolly Rancher and goes to English class.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Back at the Jackson-Blofis apartment, over dinner with Annabeth, they try to write Ganymede’s letter of recommendation.
They finally get the letter written after a lot of unhelpful but amusing suggestions from Sally, Paul, and Annabeth.
Chapter Thirty-Five
After dinner, Percy uses his Iris messages to call Annabeth and tell her the full story of what happened on Olympus.
Percy tells her about how Athena helped him out at the brunch, which makes Annabeth happy because it means that her mom finally gets how serious Annabeth is about Percy.
He also tells Annabeth about what he thought about when he fought Geras and growing old together, and it is very sweet and very cute. Annabeth tells Percy that she loves him, and Percy falls asleep to pleasant dreams.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods – My Review!
I LOVED this new Percy Jackson book! After the disappointment of not liking The Sun and the Star, enjoying this book with all those classic Percy Jackson feels was so fun. It was just a perfect little read!
This book was definitely more low-stakes than any other Camp-Half Blood books, but it was still very enjoyable and relaxing to read.
After all these characters have gone through, seeing Annabeth, Grover, and Percy just living life and trying to get Percy into college was exactly what I, as a huge Percy Jackson fan, wanted.
It will be really interesting to see if the stakes of the other books in this series will be higher, or if it will all be this sorta chill urban-fantasy vibe.
I also feel like this book was a love letter to New York City, which is a side of Percy we haven’t really gotten to see because he is always traveling around the world or at camp saving the fate of mankind (and godkind) alike.
All the NYC references and geography were really fun to read, especially as someone who loves New York and has been to many of the places Percy goes in the book (though I have not been to Yonkers).
It was also very sweet to see Percy with his family and to get more Sally Jackson scenes.
The classic Rick Riordan humor was also so spot on in this book, and I found myself laughing and smiling throughout this whole book.
The mythology in this book was much more entertaining and educational vs The Sun and the Star, which just had a lot of repeats of characters and myths.
I also think Riordan found a good balance of fan service without being cringey. Additionally, I appreciated how Percy and Annabeth’s relationship was written in this book!
They really love each other, and them not having BS conflict was so relieving because where they were at in their relationship felt very true to the characters that Rick Riordan has been writing for so long.
All in all, I would recommend that any Percy Jackson fan read this book, even if you haven’t kept up with all of Rick’s other works.
You do not need to have read The Trials of Apollo to enjoy this book or The Sun and the Star. Let me know what your thoughts are in the comments!
Happy reading,
-Paisley
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