Percy Jackson is not a retelling of the Odyssey, even though one book in the series walks through a good chunk of Odysseus’s route with a gym-class sense of humor. So where does Riordan lean on Homer on purpose, and where is the Odyssey just a name someone typed into a search bar? If you came for a one-to-one chart of monsters and chapters, you will get most of one, plus a few honest question marks where I could not check the text.
The short answer: yes, the Odyssey is in the series. Most of it sits in book two, The Sea of Monsters (2006), with a smaller dose in book one and a visit to Calypso’s island in book four. These are choices, not a retelling: the books borrow episodes, keep the jokes and move on. One correction to a common assumption: I found no Odyssey episode in book three, and book five borrows from the Trojan War side of the tradition instead.
A heads-up: this page names episodes from the middle of book two, but nothing about how any of the books end. I worked from Wikipedia’s plot summaries, Kirkus, the publisher’s descriptions, Riordan’s own FAQ, two summary sites (GradeSaver and a student book-summary page) and a reader-submitted quote from the Polyphemus chapter. I could not open the book text itself, so anything marked “inference” is my own reading, and anything I could only confirm from a summary says so.
Book 1, The Lightning Thief (2005): the Lotus-eaters
The Lightning Thief is built mostly from other myths (Wikipedia’s summary lists Medusa, the Furies and the Chimera), but it has one clear Homer detour. The trio is stalled by the Lotus-eaters in Nevada, and Wikipedia’s Lotus-eaters page says the novel features the “Lotus Hotel and Casino,” which is based on them. In the Odyssey, the lotus-eaters offer intoxicating fruit that makes Odysseus’s men forget about getting home. The shared idea is a pleasant place designed to make you forget your mission, relocated to a casino. That one is a direct match.
The Underworld trip is a different story. Odysseus does visit the realm of the dead, and so does Percy, but descents to the Underworld turn up across Greek myth. Calling it a Homer nod is my inference, and a weak one. Honest limit: the Lotus-eaters stop is the only Homer detour I could verify in book one.
Book 2, The Sea of Monsters (2006): where the Odyssey lives
The publisher’s description has Percy and friends retrieving the Golden Fleece from the Island of the Cyclopes, in a sea that is now the Bermuda Triangle. Kirkus’s review names Circe, Scylla and Charybdis and Polyphemus among the trouble the heroes meet, all of them Odyssey figures. Here they are one at a time.
The dodgeball giants (the Laestrygonians)
Percy is attacked during gym class by the Laestrygonians, which Kirkus identifies as man-eating giants from the Odyssey. In Homer they are giant cannibals who destroy all but one of Odysseus’s ships. Riordan shrinks the scale from a fleet to a school gym and keeps the danger.
Circe’s spa
According to Wikipedia, Circe runs an island health spa and turns Percy into a guinea pig, and Annabeth restores him with magical multivitamins. In Homer, Circe turns Odysseus’s men into pigs, and Hermes helps Odysseus resist her with the herb moly. Riordan’s guinea pigs are a wink at the pigs. Wikipedia’s summary says Hermes provided the multivitamins, which also make Annabeth immune to Circe’s magic. That lines up with Hermes giving Odysseus moly, but nothing I opened draws the connection, so that link is my inference. In a Goodreads answer, Riordan says a beta reader credited in The Lightning Thief, known as C.C., inspired Circe’s nickname in this book.
The Sirens
Wikipedia confirms the heroes pass the Sirens. Two summary sites say Annabeth insists on listening to the song and is bound, and one adds that Percy plugs his own ears with wax. That is Odysseus’s trick in Homer, where the crew’s ears are waxed and Odysseus has himself tied to the mast. I could not read the chapter itself, so I am not confirming the mast or any other detail of the scene.
Scylla and Charybdis
The ship is destroyed passing between Charybdis and Scylla, according to Wikipedia. In the Odyssey, the crew navigates the narrow passage between the whirlpool Charybdis and the many-headed monster Scylla. The setup is the same, the outcome is Riordan’s.
Polyphemus and “Nobody”
This is the clearest nod in the series, because the book says so. A reader-submitted quote from the chapter on Goodreads (not verified by Goodreads) has Annabeth shout from outside the cave and answer the Cyclops with “Nobody,” and the narration explains that “Nobody” is the name Odysseus used on Polyphemus long ago. GradeSaver’s study guide agrees: Annabeth distracts Polyphemus by introducing herself as Nobody. In the Odyssey, Odysseus calls himself Nobody, blinds the Cyclops, and then boasts his real name, after which Polyphemus asks his father Poseidon for revenge.
One more inference, and I will label it: in Homer, Polyphemus is Poseidon’s son, and Poseidon is Percy’s father in the series. Wikipedia says Percy’s half-brother Tyson is also a Cyclops. I noticed the family tree; none of the sources I opened draw it. GradeSaver’s summary also has Percy clinging to the bottom of a sheep to get into the cave, and its analysis ties that to the tactics Odysseus used to escape Polyphemus. In Homer, Odysseus and his men escape by clinging under the rams, so Percy’s version runs in reverse. I could not read the scene itself.
Book 4, The Battle of the Labyrinth (2008): Calypso
Calypso is not in the Sea of Monsters plot summaries I read. She shows up in The Battle of the Labyrinth. Per Wikipedia, after a volcano-forge accident Percy wakes on Ogygia with Calypso, who is cursed to fall in love with every hero who lands on her island, and no hero can stay. In Homer, Odysseus is held on Ogygia as her lover until Hermes intervenes. The match is the island and the trapped hero, and Riordan gives it his own spin.
The Labyrinth and Daedalus, which give this book its title, are not Odyssey material. They belong to the Crete stories of Minos, the Minotaur and Theseus. Counting them as Homer would be a mistake.
Books 3 and 5: other shelves
The Titan’s Curse (2007) leans on Atlas, the Hesperides, the manticore and Artemis’s Hunters. Wikipedia’s summary of it never mentions the Odyssey or Odysseus. The Last Olympian (2009) brings Typhon and Percy’s bath in the River Styx to take on Achilles’ curse, and Achilles belongs to the Trojan War side of the tradition rather than to Odysseus’s journey home. That is also the reason I would not call the series an Odyssey retelling.
What the books do not borrow
The Odyssey is a homecoming story: a long road back to a wife and a house full of rivals. Percy is not heading home, and none of the plot summaries I read for the five books show a Penelope, a suitors storyline or an Ithaca homecoming. The central quest of book two, the Golden Fleece, belongs to Jason and the Argonauts, not to Odysseus. Riordan’s FAQ says he sticks closely to the myths but favors some versions over others, and that Percy is short for Perseus, the old Greek hero, who is a different hero from Odysseus.
Reading level
Bookseller listings of the Disney Hyperion paperback of The Sea of Monsters give ages 10 to 14 (grades 5 to 9), and Riordan’s FAQ says he is committed to writing appropriate books for the middle grades. Both point to middle grade, which puts these books on the younger end of what a teen reader might pick up.
A note on the 2026 film
As of 2026-10-31, Universal’s official film site for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey lists it as in theaters July 17, 2026. The page does not mention Percy Jackson or Rick Riordan, so I am treating the film as a separate story. It states no age rating either, so check one yourself before bringing younger readers.
Questions readers ask
Is Percy Jackson based on the Odyssey?
Not on any single myth. Riordan’s FAQ says Percy is short for Perseus, and that he sticks pretty closely to the myths but favors some versions over others. The Odyssey appears mainly in The Sea of Monsters, with smaller touches in books one and four.
Which Percy Jackson book is most like the Odyssey?
The Sea of Monsters. Kirkus names Circe, Scylla and Charybdis and Polyphemus, and it also identifies the dodgeball attackers as the Odyssey’s Laestrygonians.
Do I need to read the Odyssey first?
No. The references work without it. If you want to test the parallels afterward, Books 9 to 12 are where Odysseus tells the story of his wanderings, and that covers the Lotus-eaters, the Cyclops, Circe, the Underworld, the Sirens and Scylla and Charybdis.
Is Calypso in The Sea of Monsters?
I found no Calypso in the plot summaries of book two. Per Wikipedia she appears in The Battle of the Labyrinth, book four.
For the overall series, the site’s review is A Geeky Odyssey on the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and a book-by-book look at the cast and the teenage angst is in the Percy Jackson books post. If you want to test the parallels against the source, the Odyssey exists in many translations, and Books 9 to 12 are the place to start.
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