Lore

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021

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Part 1, Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “City of Gods”

Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary

Miles starts to call the police, but Lore stops him. Police mean Lore’s name would go on file for anyone to find her, and bringing Athena to a hospital would put the goddess at the mercy of the hunters. Reluctantly, Lore brings Athena inside, feeling “helpless for the first time in years” (37). Lore sends Miles to get supplies to clean the mess and examines Athena. The wound was done by a professional, which means at least one group of hunters searches for the goddess.

Athena is one of the original Greek gods, having survived 211 Agons. Lore informs the goddess that she’s out of the hunt and won’t be pulled back in. Her entire family was murdered as a result of the Agon, making Lore the last of the House of Perseus.

When Miles returns, Lore cleans the blood in front of the brownstone and then leaves a scattered trail of Athena’s scent throughout the city in hopes it will delay the hunters. When she returns to the townhouse, Athena confesses she sought out Lore for protection. Her sister, Artemis, betrayed her, and Athena heard about Lore’s family, which puts Lore in the unique position of being knowledgeable and trained but outside the hunt. Lore asks what exactly Athena knows about her family, and Athena responds, “I know... who killed them” (44).

Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary

Lore counters that she knows who killed her family—the Kadmides. Though the hunter houses took an oath centuries ago to not kill one another between Agons, the House of Kadmos broke this promise, and their treachery went unpunished because “no other house was powerful enough to challenge them” (46).

Athena asks why Lore never avenged her family. Though Lore’s deepest desire is to kill Wrath, she never did because, as a god, he is only vulnerable during the Agon, and Lore does not want to ascend to godhood. Athena offers to kill him if Lore binds her fate to Athena’s for the duration of the Agon. The binding makes their life energy one—if either dies, the other falls. Wanting Wrath dead more than she wants to live, Lore accepts and makes the oath. Right after, she notices a pale-faced Miles, who tells Lore she better “tell me what the hell is going on” (50).

Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary

Lore gives Miles a watered-down version of the Agon and the gods. The hunt occurs for seven days every seven years, and its location is determined by where the hunter houses move the omphalos stone (point from which life originated in Greek Mythology). Only four families still participate in the Agon—the houses of Kadmos, Theseus, Achilles, and Odysseus—the others, including Lore’s (Perseus), died out over the centuries.

Miles asks what happened to Lore’s family, prompting an explanation of the house hierarchy. For centuries, it’s been the rule that only men “should be allowed to claim the power of a god” (54), meaning women have only recently been allowed to hunt and, even then, in small quantities. Fourteen cycles ago, a woman from the House of Perseus ascended to godhood as Poseidon, which enraged the other houses. The Kadmides murdered all but one member of the House of Perseus—Lore’s great-great-grandfather, whom they only left alive to keep the aegis shield (an item of power belonging to the House of Perseus) from disappearing.

Athena interrupts Lore’s explanation by announcing she needs food. Lore makes breakfast and tries to convince both Miles and Athena they have to stay hidden for the next seven days. Both argue, Athena especially. One of the reasons she wants Aristos Kadmou/Ares dead is to keep him from finding an addition to Zeus’s original poem about the Agon, a segment that “tells of how the Agon ends and how its victor will claim unfathomable power” (60). Lore agrees Wrath cannot be allowed to find the poem and decides to find Castor, who, as a healer, should be able to help Athena’s recovery.

After setting Athena up with a bath, Lore meets Miles in her room. Miles asks why the hunt continues if the hunters know they will be hunted, and Lore explains hunters strive for kleos, the honor of being remembered forever. Miles gets a call from his mom. Lore overhears Miles tell his mom about a place where they played when he was a kid, which makes Lore realize Castor’s message on the solo cup wasn’t a game. It was “instructions on where, exactly, to find him” (64).

Part 1, Chapters 4-6 Analysis

These chapters present more foreshadowing and irony. Athena’s claim that she knows who killed Lore’s family is ironic because Athena killed them. The lie marks the beginning of Athena’s deception. As a master of strategy, Athena sets pieces into play to help Wrath bring the original version of the origin poem to fruition. The poem states that the Agon may end when one god remains and attains eternal power. For much of the rest of the book, Athena weaves a web of lies around Lore, slowly distancing her from those she trusts. Athena seeks the aegis (the shield that was once hers, but that Zeus gave to the Perseides), and Lore is the only person who knows where it is.

Much of the tension and conflict of Lore relies on lies. Lore believes she is free of the Agon. In truth, Lore has just been a pawn of the gods, instead of the houses, for the past seven years. Lore’s willingness to help Athena and to protect Castor hinges on her belief that Wrath killed her family, which is not true. Over the course of the book, Lore’s understanding of her situation shifts. At one point, she thinks Tidebringer (the female Perseide who became Poseidon) has to do with the death of her family—Wrath killed them in anger for allowing a woman to ascend. This untruth causes Lore to make faulty decisions. Lore is quick to jump into dangerous situations, believing her bond with Athena will ensure the goddess protects her. While Athena keeps up the charade, the bond is a lie, and Lore’s lifeforce was never linked to Athena’s.

In telling Miles about the Agon, Lore fleshes out the details of the hunt’s world, introducing concepts from ancient Greek culture. The origin poem refers to the “naval” (center) of the world, which is the omphalos stone. In Greek myth, Zeus released two eagles at opposite ends of the world and commanded them to fly until they met at the center, which turned out to be Delphi (the original location of the hunt). Lore also discusses kleos, which translates roughly to “immortal fame.” For hunters, kleos means their epic deeds will be commemorated forever. The most powerful way to attain this form of immortality is to become a god and leave a mark on the world. Kleos shows how backward-thinking the Agon’s world is. The hunt’s entire culture is built around how one will be remembered in the future, leaving no room for cultivating the present.