Have you ever wondered what inspired or motivated Rick Riordan to write Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief? The answer is Greek mythology. A lot of things nowadays are based off Greek mythology. Hades, the ferryman Charon, and the mythical creature Cerberus are all based off this. Actually, most monsters and creatures from Percy Jackson are somehow based on Greek mythology. Even though they are based on it, they are still very different.
The ferryman Charon in Percy Jackson was the security guard for the underworld. He took Percy, Annabeth, and Grover down the River of Styx and to the underworld. It costs one coin for each person for the passage to the underworld. In Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief Charon is described as towering and
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The Cerberus also known as Kerberos is a mythical creature who guarded the gate to hades and the underworld. The Cerberus parents were Typhon and Echidna. This creature had three heads. What many people don't know is that it also had a serpent's tail, the mane of a snake, and claws of a lion because of what his parents looked like. Many people don't know this because in, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief it doesn't say anything about its serpent's tail, or mane of a snake, or even his claws of a lion. In Percy Jackson, it is described as a three-headed dog. They also mention that it is twice the size of a wooly mammoth and you could walk right under him, he was a purebred rottweiler, and he was mostly invisible (to the living). In greek mythology, the Cerberus let the dead get in and made sure nothing got out. In the book, this took place as well. The Cerberus was guarding the gate to the underworld. He made sure no living got in and no dead got out. The Cerberus could actually smell the living. This is how Rick Riordan modernized another creature in Percy Jackson and the Lightning