Clarisse is a hulking bully and one of Ares’s daughters at Camp Half-Blood. She attends camp year-round. Clarisse uses an electrified spear that Ares gave her in battle. Clarisse and the other Ares kids make it a point to haze new arrivals, but Percy’s unexpected ability to fight back makes him a target later during capture the flag. As a bully and as an antagonist, Clarisse is more annoying than genuinely dangerous for Percy. He thinks of Clarisse mostly as unintelligent, brutish, and overly interested in embodying all of Ares’s undesirable qualities.
Get the entire The Lightning Thief LitChart as a printable PDF.
Clarisse Character Timeline in The Lightning Thief
The timeline below shows where the character Clarisse appears in The Lightning Thief. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6
The huge girl, Clarisse—one of Ares’s daughters—saunters over with some friends and tells Percy that they have an initiation...
(full context)
Chapter 8
...dinner, it’s time for capture the flag. Annabeth carries in a huge, gray banner, while Clarisse presents a red one. Percy finds Luke and asks whose side they’re on. Luke says...
(full context)
Percy hears a terrifying animal noise; then, four Ares warriors and Clarisse leap out. They surround Percy, and Clarisse stabs at him with her spear. Percy protects...
(full context)
Chapter 22
...but he wants to go home—though he also doesn’t want to leave Annabeth here with Clarisse. Annabeth says quietly that she’s going home for the year. She took Percy’s advice and...
(full context)
