The Burning Maze

The Burning Maze (2018) is the third book in Rick Riordan’s young adult Trials of Apollo series, following The Hidden Oracle (2016) and The Dark Prophecy (2017). Set in Riordan’s Percy Jackson universe and inspired by ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the series follows the former god Apollo, who is now forced to live as a mortal teenager named Lester Papadopoulos. To regain his immortality, Apollo must serve under Meg, a daughter of Demeter and the mortal botanist Phillip McCaffrey. Together, Apollo and Meg undertake a quest to recover the sources of prophecy before a triumvirate of ancient Rome’s most brutal emperors (all of whom are now minor gods) uses them to destroy nature and reshape the world.

The Burning Maze begins with the satyr Grover leading Meg and Apollo west through the Labyrinth. In Palm Springs, at the ruins of Meg’s childhood home, they join forces with dryads and demigods. Together, they investigate a series of unquenchable fires and uncover an emperor’s godly aspirations. To regain control of the Erythraean Sibyl, Herophile, and stop the emperor from achieving his goal, Apollo will have to confront the most painful part of being human.

Before transitioning to writing full-time, Riordan was a middle school mythology teacher. The Trials of Apollo series is his third pentalogy in the Percy Jackson universe. All three series have been recognized as New York Times bestsellers, and the Percy Jackson stories have been adapted into a television series called Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

This guide refers to the Disney Hyperion eBook.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide include descriptions of violence, imprisonment, murder, and attempted suicide.

Plot Summary

The first page of the novel presents the sonnet-structured prophecy that Meg uttered at the end of The Dark Prophecy. The prophecy indicates that their companion, a satyr named Grover, must lead Apollo and Meg west. There, Meg will find her ancient roots, and Apollo will have to walk in his enemy’s shoes in order to release the Oracle who speaks in crossword riddles; the Oracle is being imprisoned by an emperor who is the master of a horse.

The novel is told from the first-person perspective of Apollo, who is a very reluctant narrator and warns that his story will contain a great deal of suffering. The action begins in medias res, with Grover, Apollo, and Meg fighting their way through the Labyrinth and arguing about whether they are lost. When killer birds attack, Apollo consults with the omniscient Arrow of Dodona, which provides a clue that enables the trio to escape. Apollo and Meg are both wounded during the frantic exit.

When Apollo wakes up, they are in Palm Springs at a dryad sanctuary located among the ruins of Meg’s childhood home, Aeithales. Grover urges him to meet with the dryads. The cloud nymph Mellie asks Grover and Apollo to find her husband, the satyr Gleeson Hedge, who has not returned from a shopping trip. During the search, Grover shares his theory that the emperor who uses the moniker the “new sun” has set fires in the Labyrinth, in which the Oracle is hidden. Apollo fearfully suspects that the emperor in question is Caligula; he also believes that the Oracle is the Erythraean Sibyl, also called Herophile. She once appeared to Apollo in a dream, lamenting her inability to spare two unnamed heroes. She also warned him that he must find and release her, even though the ones who oppose him will set a trap for him.

Grover and Apollo find the satyr, Gleeson Hedge, at a military supply store run by a minion of the emperor, who intends to capture Apollo with his army of automatons. Hedge helps Grover and Apollo fight their way through, drawing on the power of music. Afterward, they overhear a talking horse, Incitatus, speaking on the phone with someone whom he calls “Big C,” which confirms for Apollo that the emperor’s identity is Caligula.

Back at Aeithales, Apollo reveals his discovery, to the dismay of the dryads. Mellie shares that Piper and Jason (demigods introduced in the Heroes of Olympus series) once unsuccessfully attempted to reach the center of the maze and returned disturbed by the experience. Now, Grover agrees to lead Apollo and Meg to Piper to ask for help. Before they leave, Meg reveals that her father, who is a botanist, built Aeithales. Although she is unable to speak about her past, Meg shows Apollo her memories, which reveal that her father, Philip McCaffrey, intended to plant seven glowing seeds but was hounded by an organization that uses dandelion-yellow letterhead. Philip was forced to flee Aeithales as it burned to the ground. Now, Apollo asserts that Caligula caused the fire, prompting Meg to vow that she will secure Jason and Piper’s help.

Grover brings Meg and Apollo to Piper’s Malibu home, where they discover that her father, the film star Tristan McClean, has been ruined by N.H. Financials, a corporation that uses dandelion-yellow letterhead. This connects the troubles of Piper’s father to those of Philip McCaffrey. Piper and her father are in the process of moving to his Cherokee allotment in Oklahoma. Piper does not know why her father has been targeted, but she shares her experience in the maze, explaining that she and Jason were separated, so she never found the Oracle. However, she suspects that Jason did find it and is now refusing to reveal what happened.

Piper brings Meg and Apollo into the burning maze, where they encounter the sorceress, Medea. She reveals her plan to extract whatever is left of Apollo’s godly essence, unite it with the remaining essence of his predecessor (the sun god Helios), and infuse Caligula with this combined power so that Caligula can become the new sun god. Apollo recalls the day that Helios vanished.

Medea taunts Piper, claiming that she allowed Jason to reach Herophile in order to break him. This enrages Piper. She and Medea agree to fight a duel, and Piper gets the upper hand. After the trio escapes from Medea, Apollo has troubled dreams about Caligula’s cruelty and violence in ancient times. He also dreams of Herophile, who urges him to come to her and predicts that he must hold everyone together when they are grieving. Later, in a meeting with the dryads, Apollo reveals his past mistakes as a god and takes responsibility for the fact that his past actions are the cause of the group’s current problems. Piper agrees to lead him and Meg to Jason. Before they leave, Meg finds the seven seeds that her father had intended to plant, and she and Apollo finally plant them.

Piper brings Apollo and Meg to Jason, and he admits that he did not tell Piper everything. In a private conversation with Apollo, Jason reveals Herophile’s prediction that if he and Piper faced the emperor, one of them would die. He intended to wait for Piper to leave town with her father, then confront the emperor himself. Apollo convinces him to tell Piper the truth. Jason asks Apollo to ensure that his project to honor all the gods and goddesses with a temple is fulfilled. He also urges Apollo to remember what it is like to be human once he regains his status as a god.

Herophile also told Jason that they would need a special pair of shoes to find their way through the maze. Piper, Jason, Apollo, and Meg seek out Caligula in Santa Barbara, where his fleet of luxury yachts is docked. Meg and Jason agree to locate and distract Caligula while Piper and Apollo find the shoes.

After Apollo secures the shoes, Incitatus captures both him and Piper and brings them to Caligula, who has trapped Jason and Meg. He has also captured Medea, who is eager to extract Apollo’s essence. To cause a distraction, Apollo threatens to die by suicide because he knows that Medea can only extract his essence if he dies in a specific way. He plunges an arrow into his chest, and while Medea heals him, Jason and Meg break out. Jason duels Caligula, who kills him. The heartbroken survivors escape.

Apollo and Meg return to Aeithales with the news of Jason’s death. Apollo pledges to enter the maze, free Herophile, and end the fires. Grover and Meg join him. Wearing Caligula’s sandals, Apollo solves Herophile’s riddles. When he reaches Herophile, Medea is waiting, ready to extract Apollo’s essence. However, Piper arrives just in time to kill her. Piper is then joined by seven sacred ash tree spirits, the Meliai, whom Meg planted with her father’s seven seeds. They ensure the group’s safe exit from the maze.

The novel ends with the Meliai and Herophile remaining at Aeithales. Piper leaves for Oklahoma with her father, while Meg and Apollo take Jason’s body back to Camp Jupiter for burial. Apollo pledges to defeat the emperors, recover Delphi, and remember everything that he has learned, setting the stage for the fourth book, The Tyrant’s Tomb.