100 pages • 3 hours read
Rick RiordanThe Red Pyramid
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 26-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary: “Aboard the Egyptian Queen”
The boat is called the Egyptian Queen. Sadie and Carter find Bast on board, along with a captain with a battleax for a head. While the captain prepares the ship to sail to the land of the dead, Carter, Sadie, and Bast eat in the lavish dining room. Bast confirms she was fighting Apophis in captivity. For centuries, she battled on Ra’s orders, proud to keep chaos at bay. As she grew weaker, she started to lose the fight, and Sadie and Carter’s parents freed her to let her recover because their mother foresaw terrible things if Bast lost. Though Bast was grateful because she was afraid of Apophis, she fears that Apophis may have escaped, and the chaos he reeks on the world “would be my fault” (326).
Angered by what Bast has had to endure to preserve order, Carter goes to bed. His ba floats up to the boat’s wheel, where Horus is at the helm. He chides Carter for questioning order and sends his ba to an airplane, where Zia, Desjardins, and two other magicians sit amidst a crowd of human passengers. Forces of chaos attack the plane, sending it plummeting. Zia lands the plane safely but passes out from the use of magic. More scenes show storms demolishing the land before one of the distant past where Set overpowers Isis and Horus. Horus warns Carter that he must stop Set and claim the throne of the gods for himself, and Carter wakes to Bast and Sadie standing over him. They’ve arrived at the entrance to the land of the dead.
Chapter 27 Summary: “A Demon with Free Samples”
Carter, Sadie, and Bast join the captain at the wheel as the land around them grows darker. They pass through the entrance, which is a giant waterfall, and mists inhabited by lost spirits overtake the riverbanks. Bast, Sadie, and Carter head to the prow to face a pending challenge because they must “prove your worth to enter the Land of the Dead” (341).
A giant lion-headed man comes out of the water. Sadie and Carter must name him with his secret name to pass. While Carter searches the Book of the Dead for the correct name, Sadie distracts the man with idle conversation. She asks what his duties include, and he lists them off. One is being Lord of Perfume, and he offers Sadie a free sample, which she declines. She asks what his friends call him, and he reveals his secret name. Sadie orders him to let them pass, adding that “my brother wants a free sample” (345). The man puffs perfume at Carter before disappearing. Ahead, fire boils along the river. It’s the next trial—the Lake of Fire.
Chapters 26-27 Analysis
The Egyptian Queen and the journey down the river of the Duat symbolize a few things about the hero’s journey and Egyptian myth. In the journey, heroes often traverse the land of the dead and emerge alive at the other end, which Carter and Sadie do in these and the following chapters. The Egyptian Queen boat is Carter and Sadie’s version of Ra’s ship. In myth, Ra, the sun god, would sail along the river in the Duat each night to return from where the sun set in the west to where it rose in the east. Like Ra, the kids face challenges along their route, including demons and the Lake of Fire, and must gaze upon the spirits of the lost dead.
The demons in these chapters are symbolic and modernizations of the Egyptian myths. There is no mention of the ax-headed captain in Egyptian myth, and Riordan may be using the demon to show the dangers Carter and Sadie face. The demon does not hurt them because it is bound to them, but it would become a dangerous opponent if they were to release it. The lion-headed god is based on Shezmu, the god of perfume and wine, who was often associated with celebration. Here, Riordan moves Shezmu’s character to the Duat river and makes him an opponent rather than one who inspires celebration. To bring mythology into the modern story setting, he has the god offer free perfume samples, making him almost like a traveling salesperson.
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