Festus
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| Festus | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Title | |
| The Bronze Dragon | |
| Former Protector of Camp Half-Blood | |
| Masthead of the Argo II | |
| Vital Statistics | |
| Gender | Male |
| Family | Hephaestus' Cabin (creators) Leo Valdez (Master) |
| Status | Broken (head being used as figurehead for the Argo II) |
| Eye Color | Red (made of ruby) |
| Hair Color | None |
| Height | Huge |
| Other | |
| Affiliation | Camp Half-Blood |
| Weapons | Claws, teeth, and fire |
| Species | Automaton |
| Home | Camp Half-Blood |
| Greek/Roman form | None |
| Appearances | The Demigod Files (The Bronze Dragon) The Lost Hero The Son of Neptune The Mark of Athena |
| Actor | None |
| Quests | The Quest to Save Hera |
| “ | You named the dragon Festus, Leo? Do you know in Latin, Festus means 'happy'? You want us to save the world on Happy the Dragon? | ” |
| –Jason Grace, in The Lost Hero | ||
Festus (meaning "Happy" in Latin) was an automaton dragon created by the old Hephaestus cabin, with the blessing of their father, many years before the series to defend Camp Half-Blood, but goes haywire after Beckendorf's death.
Contents |
History
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Sometime before the events of the books, Festus was created and activated inside Bunker 9 by the Hephaestus campers and a blessing from the fire god. A set of wings was revealed inside the bunker in The Lost Hero; it's unknown whether they were originally for the dragon and, if they were, why they were never put on him. Also, before his creation, a set of blueprints was made for a Greek trireme lit by flames, and Festus' head was planted in the bow of the ship.
Festus was created to defend the camp from monsters before Thalia Grace was turned into a tree by her father to save her life. However, about fifteen years before Percy's arrival at camp, he malfunctioned and ran off into the woods, where he eventually broke down. His body was somehow buried in the ground and he was lost for a long time.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
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The Demigod Files
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The Bronze Dragon
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It first appears as the unnamed Bronze Dragon. During a game of Capture the Flag, its head is found by the Myrmekes and the dragon is reactivated by Percy, Annabeth Chase, and Silena Beauregard to help them rescue Beckendorf from getting eaten by the Myrmekes. Beckendorf activates the dragon's "Attack mode" and it ends up running around trying to kill anything, including the demigods. He is deactivated by Beckendorf with Percy's help afterwards due to the fact that it is unstable and dangerous. It is fixed by the Hephaestus cabin to protect Camp Half-Blood sometime after this.
The Heroes of Olympus
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The Lost Hero
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Added by SonOfZeus1200Following Hephaestus' cabin being supposedly cursed after Beckendorf's death, the dragon goes haywire and hides in the forest. After Leo catches it in a trap, he manages to fix it, giving it wings and naming it "Festus." Festus then helps Leo, Piper McLean, and Jason Grace on their quest by taking them across the country. It takes them first to Quebec and then to Detroit, where it is knocked out of the sky by Khione, who had also damaged its control disk earlier. After Leo fixes it, it takes them to Chicago and saves them from Medea's sun dragons. It makes its final flight to Omaha, where it malfunctions once again due to Khione's damage. Leo is able to temporarily reboot him before attempting to crash land on a massive mansion's lawn. However, the mansion turns out to belong to King Midas, and a set of lasers cut Festus to shreds. It then uses Morse Code to give Leo his last wishes, stating that "everything can be reused", just as Hephestus had told Leo earlier. It is unknown how Festus knew what the god had said. Leo then asks his father to transport Festus' head back to Bunker 9.

Added by SK-IIILater on, it is revealed that the head of Festus was in the drawing of a boat that Leo created when he was a child, and the boat would eventually be determined by Leo as the same as the blueprints of what he would call the Argo II. Leo announces to his cabin-mates and a few other campers that the Hephaestus cabin would build the boat, using the head of Festus as the figurehead, to voyage to the Greece mainland and to stop the Giants from destroying the original Mount Olympus, thus destroying the "roots of the gods."
The Son of Neptune
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He is briefly mentioned by Percy when he sees the Argo II, and says the masthead looks "oddly familiar," referring to the time he caught Festus in The Bronze Dragon.
The Mark of Athena
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He is the masthead of the Argo II. Festus can also communicate with Leo using a series of sounds similar to Morse code. Despite him being only a head, Festus has a number of useful abilities, such as tracking Celestial Bronze.
Appearance
Edit
Festus is described as having a perfect mix of bronze and gold scales, giant sphere rubies for eyes that can light up like high-powered searchlights, bronze wings, and drill-like razor sharp teeth. He is close to 50 tons in weight but can still easily fly with passengers.
Trivia
Edit
- 'Festus' is Latin for 'Happy'. Jason notices this, and jokingly calls him "Happy the Dragon" in The Lost Hero.
- The Brazilian translation has Jason calling him "Happy Dragon", thus neither using "Happy" as his name nor using "Dragon" as a title.
- Leo has a safety whistle, summoned from his tool belt, which Festus will come to when it is blown.
- It is mentioned in The Lost Hero that Charles Beckendorf was the only one able to reason with the dragon without being burnt to death.
- Leo would have been burnt to death when he first met Festus, if not for his immunity to fire.
- So far, Festus is the only character who in Percy Jackson and the Olympians appears only in the Demigod Files, but becomes important in The Heroes of Olympus.
- When asked if Rick Riordan would rather have Blackjack or Festus, he replied: "At the risk of hurting Blackjack's feelings, Festus for sure."
| Monsters | |
| Species: | Centaur | Cyclopes | Dragon | Drakon | Empousa | Giants | Harpy | Hyperborean Giant | Ichthyocentaur | Karpoi | Laistrygonian Giant | Pegasus | Skolopendra | Stymphalian Birds | Telekhine |
| Friendly Monsters: | Argus | Blackjack | Briares | Chiron | Don | Ella | Festus | Gleeson Hedge | Grover Underwood | Hippocampus | Mellie | Mrs. O'Leary | Ophiotaurus | Peleus | Scipio | Tyson | Tempest |
| Enemy Monsters: | Agrius and Oreius | Arachne | Basilisk | Charybdis and Scylla | Chimera | Chrysaor | Clazmonian Sow | Colchis Bull | Echidna | Euryale | Geryon | Joe Bob | Kampê | Manticore | Medusa | Minotaur | Nemean Lion | Polyphemus | Sphinx | Stheno | Typhon | |
| Neutral Monsters: | Cerberus | Erymanthian Boar | Gray Sisters | Gorgons | Furies | Flesh-Eating Horse | Gryphon | Hippocampus | Siren |