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Luke is an older teen at Camp Half-Blood. His father, Hermes, claimed Luke, so Luke is now the leader of the Hermes cabin. Though Luke seems genuinely interested in taking care of the many younger kids who wind up in his cabin, he’s also generally disillusioned with camp and life as a young demigod. He feels abandoned by Hermes and never mentions his mother, but he seems to have few connections to blood family members and struggles because of this. Luke ended up at Camp Half-Blood with Thalia and young Annabeth, and Annabeth has had a crush on Luke ever since. He’s also quite handsome and skilled with a sword. His skills earned him a quest several years ago. Though this means that many campers revere and admire Luke, Luke thinks little of his quest—he repeated Hercules’s quest to steal a golden apple from the Garden of the Hesperides, and the experience got him nothing but a pat on the back as far as he’s concerned. Though Luke becomes a caring mentor to Percy during Percy’s time at camp and even gives Percy a seemingly useful parting gift of winged tennis shoes, Percy later discovers that Luke is a double agent. Luke’s loneliness, angst, and disillusionment with gods and with his father made Luke a prime target for the imprisoned Titan Kronos, who seeks to rise to power again and overthrow the gods. In Luke’s opinion, the gods have done nothing but condemn him to a life of loneliness, danger, and sorrow as a pawn, so he feels he has every reason to overthrow them. Percy discovers this when Luke makes an attempt to kill him with a poisonous pit scorpion on the last day before summer campers leave. Luke’s betrayal hits everyone hard, but Percy and Annabeth vow to track down Luke when they return to camp next summer.
Luke Quotes in The Lightning Thief
The The Lightning Thief quotes below are all either spoken by Luke or refer to Luke. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 22 Quotes
“That’s not an easy quest,” I said. “Hercules did it.”
“Exactly,” Luke said. “Where’s the glory in repeating what others have done? [...] and when I came back, all I got was pity. I wanted to pull Olympus down stone by stone right then, but I bided my time. I began to dream of Kronos.”
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When Luke tells Percy about his quest two years ago and admits that he’s a double agent working for Kronos, he lays out exactly how and why he turned to Kronos for support. Part of this has to do with how abandoned Luke feels by his father, the god Hermes. The quest was Hermes’s idea—it’s common for demigods’ parents to come up with their quests—and since it’s just a repeat of Hercules’s quest, Luke takes this as a signal that Hermes doesn’t care enough about him to give him a quest that would allow him to stand out and flourish. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto volu
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Luke Character Timeline in The Lightning Thief
The timeline below shows where the character Luke appears in The Lightning Thief. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6
...as “undetermined,” and a kind-looking blond boy with an unsettling scar on his face named Luke greets Percy. Annabeth blushes and says that Luke will be Percy’s counselor for now in...
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Chapter 7
Luke offers Percy toiletries and a sleeping bag. When Percy insists he doesn’t belong here since...
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...fits. They all toast the gods, and then wood nymphs carry out platters of food. Luke tells Percy to tell his glass what he wants to drink. Percy asks for blue...
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Chapter 8
...real, there must be a way to bring her back. He also begins to understand Luke’s resentment of Hermes. Percy wonders why his dad can’t just conjure a phone and call.
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The Hermes cabin meets Luke for a sword-fighting lesson. Percy does okay, but none of the blades feel right. Luke...
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...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 that tonight, they’re allied with Athena, along...
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...fights off Clarisse’s friends, and then snaps Clarisse’s spear and hits her in the face. Luke races past with the Ares flag, which turns silver once Luke crosses the creek.
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...but the creature leaps at him. It falls dead from a dozen arrows. Everyone ignores Luke and the Athena team’s victory. Chiron trots up and says that someone must’ve summoned the...
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Chapter 9
...to fit in. Many kids seem afraid of him. He has one-on-one sword lessons with Luke, and Annabeth seems irritable and annoyed during their Greek lessons. One night, Percy discovers a...
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Chapter 10
...the trio and introduces Argus, the head of security with eyes all over his body. Luke races up the hill to give Percy a pair of tennis shoes, which he says...
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Chapter 15
...rainbow, Annabeth tosses a drachma into the rainbow and requests Half-Blood Hill. They can see Luke at the railing. Luke grins but says that Chiron is at the cabins; they’re having...
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Alone with Percy, Luke shouts that there have been fights because the campers are taking sides; it’s like the...
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Chapter 16
...Arachne, and Annabeth confirms this. Percy reminds her that they’re a team. Annabeth asks if Luke really said nothing in the Iris message. After a minute, Percy relays what Luke said...
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Chapter 20
...water and successfully evades Ares’s stabs, but Riptide is shorter than Ares’s sword. Percy remembers Luke’s advice to get in closer, but Ares knocks Riptide away and kicks Percy 30 feet...
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Chapter 22
Annabeth, Percy, and Grover are the first heroes to return alive to Half-Blood Hill since Luke, so they participate in a traditional feast and burn the burial shrouds that the other...
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Percy decides to do some sword practice to clear his head. He finds Luke in the arena, whacking on dummies like his life depends on it. Percy watches in...
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There are no monsters around, so Percy and Luke settle in by the creek. They talk about whether Percy misses his quest, and Luke...
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The scorpion fixes its eyes on Percy as it climbs up his leg. Luke asks Percy if he felt the darkness and realized how useless it is to be...
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Percy asks why Luke didn’t take the items to Kronos. Luke says that he got overconfident and that Ares...
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Luke disappears as the scorpion lunges. Percy smacks at it and then cuts it in half...
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...staying at camp or going home. Chiron leaves for Olympus to report what happened with Luke, and on his way out, he tells Annabeth that “they” are here. Annabeth helps Percy...
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