Literature / The Manticore

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“The Manticore” is an independently published Greek mythology series by Nicolas Harrison and edited by Rena Meier. As of 2023, the series has one book published on Amazon, titled: “The Head of the Gorgon”.

The story follows Friday Walker, a boy born in our world, as he embarks on missions throughout New Hellas (a Greco-roman world where the gods fled to after The Trojan Cycle with Charlie (a manticore), Theodora “Dora” (a clayborn), and Ebony (a magos daughter of Helios). Throughout their adventures, they face many hardships and discover what it means to be a hero and challenge how they see the world. They are also locked in a battle against fate, as the once-prophecized son of Zeus and Metis (who was foretold would overthrow his father) has revealed himself and allied with Ekhidna (the mother of monsters) to achieve his goal. They must find a way to stop the prophecy from coming true, or else both New Hellas and Friday’s world (the Iron-World) are doomed.

Synopsis for Book 1: Friday Walker lives a simple life in Washington DC with his guardian Donna and her friend Krystal. Unfortunately, fate throws him into New Hellas, a world where Graeco-Roman myths and legends are true. In this new world, which is distrustful of those from the "Iron-World" like him, the only way he can return home is to embark on a dangerous quest across an unfamiliar landscape filled with gods and monsters. He is accompanied by a clay-born girl and a dangerous but majestic manticore. However, unknown to them, something greater is lurking in the shadows that can destroy both their worlds.

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Tropes that apply to ‘’The Manticore''

• Abhorrent Admirer: Aegeus to Dora.
• Abusive Parents: Ouranos to Kronos and the Titans. Kronos to Zeus and the Olympians. And Zeus to Aegeus (big time) and Apollon.
  • Ekhidna had Kerberos (her son) kidnapped to release the others from the underworld.
  • Friday was abandoned by both his biological parents at different times.
• Adaptational Origin Connection: In the original myths, the Arimaspoi were a vague tribe of one-eyed men. Here, they are a race of Lizard Men Half-Human Hybrids descended from Ekhidna who serve her in her mission to overthrow the gods.
• A Hero Is Born: Deconstructed. The gods allowed demigods to be born again specifically to fight the resurrected monsters after the Awakening. However, just because they are demigods, doesn’t automatically mean they have the constitution or integrity to be heroes. They are also essentially forced into their roles as soldiers and are deprived of things like romantic relationships while having to fight deadly monsters. While on their way to Delphoi in the first book, Friday and Dora meet a couple who want to have their demigod child avoid such a fate.
• Aesop:
  • Book 1: Don’t judge someone without really knowing them. Family is more than just who you’re related to, they are the people who love you. It’s best to be compassionate even when you don’t think you need to be.
• All-Loving Hero: Friday cares about everyone.
• All Myths Are True: Greek actually, although its specifically stated that the reason there are so many different variations of stories is that authors have taken creative liberties with it.
  • The Olympians ran into Angels in Rome, but they aren’t sure exactly what they were. Krystal suggests that they could be beings created by Khaos, by the Judeo-Christian God, that God may have been created by Khaos or vice versa.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Friday, Dora, and Ebony to the demigods, for different reasons.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Dora is apprehensive due to a lifetime of being bullied for her origins and being a strong woman in a culture based on ancient Greece. She’s also apprehensive about Friday due to him being an “Iron Worlder” and being suspicious of his nice guy attitude. She gets better.
• A Mistake Is Born: Any demigod birth before the Awakening was regarded as this. Donna herself had to flee to the Iron-World because she was attacked by monstrous eagles sent by Zeus when she was a teenager.
• Angry Black Woman: Donna, being an Amazon and a daughter of Ares.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Aegeus to Zeus.
• Apocalypse How: Overthrowing the top god of any pantheon causes anything from a type 0 to a type 3, and this is what will happen again if Aegeus overthrows Zeus. In the prologue, it is mentioned that Zeus and Poseidon caused various type 3 events because they were displeased with the current ages of man.
  • When Zeus became ill 15 years ago, it caused “the sky to shake”. While both he and Haides were distracted, it also allowed Ekhidna to kidnap Kerberos allowing the souls of nearly every famous monster to escape the underworld and repossess their bodies and resume terrorizing New Hellas. This event is called “The Awakening”.
• Artificial Family Member: Dora IS Theo’s flesh and blood, but she was transformed from a clay statue he lived his blood with first.
• Badass Pacifist: Friday prefers to not kill, but he will fight if he has too.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Friday wins over both Dora and Ebony due to his nice personality and genuine admiration of them.
• Berserk Button:
  • Maximos (demigod son of Zeus) is irked upon learning that Friday was Happily Adopted despite not even being a demigod.
  • Friday gets irritated by close mother-son bonds due to his Dark and Troubled Past.
  • Dora hates being called “mud girl”.
  • If you call Ebony a witch, she will magically throw you across the room.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Aegeus pretends to be a nice guy and a loving fiancé to Dora. But he’s actually planning to overthrow the gods and doom the Iron-World to extinction and domination by monsters.
• Cain and Abel: Aegeus and Athene. Aegeus is working for Ekhidna (who he sees as a mother figure) and plans to overthrow their father to rule New Hellas. Athene is working to protect their father and preserve the status quo.
• Canon Character All Along: Aegeus, Dora’s (ex) fiance, turns out to be Athene’s twin brother. Making him the son of Zeus and Metis that Zeus feared from a prophecy that said son would overthrow him.
• Can't Have Sex, Ever: Demigods are forbidden to get married or have relations with other people to limit the number of divine offspring in the world.
• Character Development: In the first book, Friday learns to appreciate his legal guardian Donna more. Dora also learns to be more open with people and less judgmental.
• The Chosen One: Deconstructed with Friday. While Hera does state that she chose him because he has all the qualities she was looking for, she also states that she could have found other options.
• Cliffhanger: The fist book ends with Friday being allowed to return home and finding out where Kerberos is. But he is also told by Haides that, in exchange for him resurrecting Medousa, he must find Kerberos before next spring or he will be taken to the underworld instead.
• Cool Sword: Friday’s sword, which he got from Hera, is made out of Adamantine (making it indestructible), it also cannot be wielded by anyone other than him, it grants him demigod-level strength and reflexes, can redirect lighting strikes, and emits flams that can negate ghosts and regeneration.
• Daddy's Girl: Dora to Theo. Her full name, Theodora, means “Theos gift”.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Friday was an orphan before being adopted by Donna, but not in the same way as most heroes’ examples. His father left him when he was two or three. He barely remembers him except for him and his mom fighting. After that his mother became depressed until she started dating a tattoo artist that Friday did not get along with. Then his mother took him to an ice cream shop and left him there rather than avoid losing her husband, and Friday ended up bouncing around from foster home to foster home. In one foster home, he was bullied and his previous foster parents before Donna were uncaring and neglectful to him who made it clear his stay with them was temporary.
  • Ebony’s mother is permanently blind because she accidentally saw her birth father’s (Helios) true form for a split second and the god was unable to heal her due to being burned by his own power. So Ebony spent her entire childhood with a mom who could never know what she looked like. She was also naturally feared by her peers due to being a magos.
  • Dora was looked down on for being a “clay born”, how similar her origins are to pandora (the woman who unleashed the evils of the world), and out of envy from her peers for being stronger and a better fighter than them. They cruelly call her “mud girl” and its to the point where she is naturally hostile to everyone she meets. She once also had a friend who pretended to like her so she would help him in training then cruelly left her after he could manage on his own.
• Dark Is Evil: Ekhidna manifests as a smoky-shadowy figure and is very malicious.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Friday gains Dora’s trust by complimenting her and working with her on their mission.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: New Hellas is based on Anchient Greece, and all the sexism that comes with it. Although demigod girls are given more privileges (like attending school).
  • Theo sets Dora up for an arranged marriage for the dowry, but is nice enough to make sure Dora is ok with it first.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Ebony takes being called a WITCH as an insult.
• The Dreaded: Medousa due to her curse of turning any mortal that looks at her to stone and temporarily paralyzing any immortal.
  • Aegeus is feared due to his prophecy of overthrowing Zeus.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: Zeus keeps New Hellas from advancing beyond classical Greece so that the humans there remain dependent on them. Any attempts to invent something new are met with lightning.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Ekhidna and her monstrous children come off as this.
• Faux Affably Evil: Aegeus puts on a Nice Guy act in public but he’s not afraid to hurt, blackmail, and kill to get what he wants. He also shows a discrimination towards the Iron-World and Friday despite being friendly with him before.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • The people of New Hellas think that the Iron-World is a desolate wasteland filled with sinful people due to no longer being “blessed” by the gods. The demigods manage to befriend Friday while the king of Athenai remains hostile.
    • King Kekropes also looks down on demigods considering them weapons to fight monsters at best.
  • Witches/Mages in general are feared in New Hellas due to having reputations for cursing people who have wronged them and being overall temperamental.
  • Part of Maximos’ disdain towards Friday is irritation that he (someone who isnt even a demigod) got to be Happily Adopted while he was made a slave the first few years of his life.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Aegeus’ father devoured his mother before he was born to prevent his possible usurpation. After being freed from his fathers stomach as an embryo when Zeus fell ill during the Awakening he was brought to Herakles’ temple and served the god until Ekhidna told him his origins. Now, he is hellbent on overthrowing Zeus.
  • Maximos was abandoned by his birth mother as an infant and adopted only to be made a slave by his new “family”. He served them for years until they were informed of his divine parentage by priests of Zeus and went on to live in luxury in one of his fathers temples. No wonder he has an ego.
• Flaw Exploitation: Friday wins his fight against Aegeus, despite the latter being much more powerful than him, because he plays on his ego and goades him to try striking Friday with his own sword (which only works for Friday).
• Foil: Friday to Aegeus.
  • Friday is a human who gains demigod like power from a sword. Aegeus is a god by birth but whose powers are weakened.
  • They are both orphans, but while Friday was raised by a loving foster aunt who wanted to keep him away from New Hellas, Aegeus was raised in a temple dedicated to Herakles and was later taken in by Ekhidna to use as a weapon.
  • While Friday used to have a slight crush on Dora, but quickly got over it and moved onto Ebony. Aegeus was her fiancé and remains obsessed with her.
  • Friday is Hera’s (the goddess of motherhood) champion, Aegeus serves Echidna (the mother of monsters) as her foster son.
• Happily Adopted:
  • Friday is happy living with Donna (who he comes to see as a surrogate aunt) and Krystal.
  • Aegeus also says that he is happy with Ekhidna as his adoptive mother.
• Hidden Elf Village: New Hellas cannot be seen or touched by our world (the Iron-World) due to its magic. Abd they perfer to keep it that way.
• Honey Trap: Athene reveals that her ulterior motive for helping create Dora is that she realized that her twin brother (who was stuck as an embryo in Zeus’ stomach) was freed, and she theorized (correctly) that he would be drawn to Dora for her connection to her.
• Hypocrite: Apollon admits that the gods have modern technology despite not allowing the New Hellians to have any.
• Jerkass Gods: The Olympians, very much so.
• Like Brother and Sister: Dora and Friday become this.
• Lost Lenore: Theo lost his fiancé, Toula, during the Awakening so Dora was given to him as a “consolation prize.”
• Loving a Shadow:
  • Aegeus regards Ekhidna as a mother figure. Who manifests as a literal shadow.
  • Aegeus’ obsession with Dora is largely shallow.
• Nice Guy: Friday is this. So is Ebony.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Averted with every other monster in the story, specifically Ekhidna.
  • Medousa turns out to be a nice girl who was unfairly hated and feared for her curse. Her sisters are willing to side with Aegeus to bring her back, but dont fight anyone they dont have too.
• Not Quite Dead: Ekhidna was supposedly killed by Argus on Hera’s orders. But she revived millenia later thanks to her regenerative immortality, though in a weakened state.

Replacement Goldfish: Athene gave Theo the means to create Dora to compensate for the loss of his fiance.

• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Subverted, Aegeus is greatly attracted to Dora. Dora herself is asexual but is still willing to go through with it. AVERTED after Aegeus’ true nature is revealed.
• The Power of the Sun: Ebony, being the daughter of the Sun Titan-god Helios, has magical powers that manifest as sun rays and heat.
• Pride: Donna states that this is the Fatal Flaw of nearly all demigods and the reason why many of them die young.
• Protagonist Title: The series is called the Manticore because Friday befriends a manticore that he names “Charlie” that serves as his steed.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Ekhidna, the Arimaspoi, Typhous, the Hydra, all terrifying.
• Secret Test of Character: When Friday was eight, Hera approached him as an old woman to test his compassion, selflessness, and honesty. But what really made her choose him is when Hera showed him a drowning manticore cub and Friday saved it.
• Semi-Divine: After millennia, Zeus allowed the gods to resume during demigods. They recaptured throughout New Hellas and some of them trained at the Museum of Olympian History.
  • Dora is also considered a demigod despite being a “clay born”.
  • Aegeus lacks a lot of his divine power due to growing up away from the divine energy of the gods. But still has a lot of power.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Maximo’s is quite full of ginseng and a glory hound. Though he has deeper reasons…
• Stern Teacher: Donna to the demigods at the museum.
• Truly Single Parent: Theo created Theodora from clay after adding his own blood to her and being brought to life by the four winds.
• Weak, but Skilled: Friday is weak compared to the demigods that he trains with, but he received training from Donna at an early age so he is able to best Maximos (who is a son of Zeus) in a swordfight. Of course, then he gets a magic sword from Hera.
• We Can Rule Together: Aegeus offers this to Dora, promising to make her his queen and she can rule over the people who once looked down on her as a goddess.
• Would Hurt a Child: The gods and monsters have no issues with this.
• Wretched Hive: The Olympians convinces people of New Hellas that the Iron-World (our world) is a polluted, sinful, wasteland without them to govern it.
• You Can't Fight Fate: What makes Agesus so intimidating is that, as the biological son of Zeus and Métis, he is destined to overthrow Zeus. Despite this, Friday still hopes for a Loophole Abuse.