| “ | Someone screamed. Maybe it was me. | ” |
–Percy Jackson, in the sun chariot in The Titan's Curse. | ||
The Sun Chariot is not the sun itself, but rather the manifestation of human dreams about the sun. It was originally owned by Helios, but is now owned by Apollo.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
The Titan's Curse
Artemis tells her Hunters that she will look for Annabeth and orders them to wait for her at Camp Half-Blood. She looks to the horizon and as the sun rises, Apollo appears in a glowing cherry-red Maserati which is actually the sun chariot.
He offers to give the Hunters of Artemis, Nico, Grover, Percy, and Thalia a ride back to camp as a favor to his twin sister. He transforms the sun chariot into a small bus allowing everyone to fit inside. When asked how Apollo could drive the sun across the sky if it is in a fixed spot in space, Apollo explains that the sun chariot is the collected belief of the sun, but it can still emit heat and light. Knowing Thalia is the daughter of the sky god Zeus and is almost sixteen, he gives her a chance to drive (much to her chagrin). Not knowing about Thalia's fear of heights, she drives the chariot in an erratic manner, at one point driving so close to the ground Apollo claims she lit New England on fire. They ended up crashing in the canoe lake back at Camp Half-Blood, but everyone exited the chariot uninjured.
During the party with the gods, Apollo tells Percy he's free to fly the chariot some time with him and do archery from it. Percy turns down the archery offer as he's not a good archer.
Appearance
The sun chariot can look like any car of Apollo's choice. Apollo usually picks a cherry-red Maserati. In The Titan's Curse, Apollo turned it into a typical mini bus to accommodate more people.
Gallery
