Demigods and Monsters by Rick Riordan Page B

experience the divine? There are nearly as many answers as there are religions. Some faiths say that prayer alone is the way. Others transcend—go beyond—the everyday state of mind through entering a kind of trance. This can be done through meditation, chanting, drumming, dancing, singing, fasting, yogic practices, and the use of psychoactive drugs. Alcohol, of course, is one of these drugs.
    But there’s another idea about how we can access the divine that has to do with place. As the writer Alain Daniélou explains in his book Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus :
    There are places where the visible and invisible worlds are very close to each other. . . . They are a sort of door, through which it is a little easier to pass from one world to another.
    I think Camp Half-Blood is one of these sacred places, which is why Dionysus, the god whose rites allow people to communicate with the deities, is the perfect god to run it. He’s the gatekeeper, the one who lets mortals in to meet the gods, whose presence ensures that that the boundaries between the divine and the mundane remain in place, and who admits the half-bloods to experience their own semi-divine inheritance. When Percy leaves Camp Half-Blood without permission in The Titan’s Curse , it’s Mr. D who comes after him. In his own self-centered way, Mr. D is completely aware of who enters and leaves the camp. With his strange indifference, Mr. D allows the kids the freedom to shrug off their old confining identities—for example, Percy as a problem student with ADHD—and find their new true identities as half-gods and heroes. It’s in Camp Half-Blood that the Mist vanishes and one can see the supernatural. Creatures such as the centaurs and satyrs reveal themselves in their true forms. Here, even monsters, like the Minotaur, appear. It’s the place where the kids meet the divine (Mr. D himself, for starters) and realize that they each have the gods inside them. And it’s Dionysus,
the god of all growing things, who allows the half-gods to fully grow into themselves. In Camp Half-Blood, the campers don’t have to drink or enter a trance in order to partake of the wine god’s blessings. They merely have to be in his baffling and amazing presence. Rick Riordan’s portrayal of Mr. D pulls off a bit of magic that I think even the gods would envy. He’s given us Dionysus without his wine and yet with all of his power and mystery. God of the vine, fertility, wildness, drama, and joy. Master of madness, magic, and illusion. The gatekeeper who gives mortals entry to the divine.

Great Books on Greek Myth
    Daniélou, Alain. Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysu s. First published in French as Shiva et Dionysus 1979. Reprint of 1982 translation, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1992.
    Grant, Michael. Myths of the Greeks and Romans. 1962, Reprint, New York: A Meridian/Penguin Book 1995.
    Hamilton, Edith. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. 1940. Reprint, New York: A Meridian/Penguin Book 1989.

    Ellen Steiber lives in Tucson, Arizona, where she writes and edits books. She has always loved mythology and thinks that there’s a good chance that the Greek gods are still around. While she was writing this essay, Iris appeared in a gorgeous double rainbow right outside her office. Two of her other essays appear in The World of the Golden Compass, edited by Scott Westerfeld, and A New Dawn , edited by Ellen Hopkins. Her Web site is www.ellensteiber.com .

The Gods Among Us
    Elizabeth M. Rees

    When the gods come among men, they are not known.
    â€”RALPH WALDO EMERSON

What You Can’t See Might Harm You
    Living in New York City, just under two miles from what became Ground Zero, I witnessed the events of 9/11 all too close to home. It was a scene to gladden the war-mongering heart of Ares, the Greek
god of war. The smoky, fiery image of the Twin Towers was surely