Percy Jackson is the eponymous hero of the best-selling by . He made his debut in at just 12 years old, where he discovered the shocking truth about his parentage: He is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and the god Poseidon. Beyond his own series, he was one of the protagonists in the series and has since appeared in other spin-off novels and from Riordan. If you want to know everything there is to know about Percy Jackson, dive right in.
*Warning: The following article contains spoilers for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.*
Who is Percy Jackson?
Percy Jackson's full name is Perseus Jackson. Born in 1993, he is the son of the god Poseidon and a human woman named Sally Jackson. Although a mere mortal, Sally has the special ability of seeing through the Mist, which allowed her to meet and fall in love with Poseidon. Sally named her newborn Perseus after one of the few figures in Greek mythology that found a happy ending, wishing the same for her son. Percy has very few memories of his father because Poseidon was forced to leave Sally and Percy to protect them from Zeus, who would be angry if he knew his brother had fathered a child. Demigods are considered powerful, and Zeus views them as a threat to his own position.
As a young child, Percy's demigod status was apparent when a snake attempted to attack him and he managed to strangle it. This was a wake-up call for Sally, who knew that demigods had a particular smell that drew monsters, and her son's scent was very strong. Worried for Percy's safety, she married Gabe Ugliano, known as "Smelly Gabe" for his overpowering body odor. Sally's hope was that Gabe's stench would mask her son's scent from monsters. While this worked for the most part, Gabe was cruel and abusive to both Sally and Percy. He was finally petrified by Medusa.
As Percy grew older, strange and inexplicable things often seemed to happen around him—for which he repeatedly got blamed. Percy was expelled from six schools for many accidents that were actually the result of Greek monsters trying to attack him.
How is Percy Jackson described in the books?
Percy has tanned, olive skin and disheveled black hair. He has sea-green eyes, which he inherited from Poseidon. Although he is not extremely fit at the start of the series, his training over the course of the books results in a muscular, lean frame. He's often described as quite good-looking, bearing a striking resemblance to his father. He temporarily has a gray streak in his hair after the events of , but appears to have lost it by the events of . He is also considered brave and loyal, but he tends to have a short temper, especially if he sees bullying occurring.
