Throughout The Sea of Monsters, the characters learn things about themselves that are both helpful and harmful. As a daughter of Athena, Annabeth always desires new information, but she is also vulnerable to the negative effects of knowledge. In Chapter 12 when she and Percy face Circe, Annabeth’s godly abilities of intelligence and understanding allow her to see through the sorceress’s tricks. Resistance to mind games emerges as one of Annabeth’s strengths here. However, in Chapter 13, Annabeth falls victim to the song of the Sirens, who possess far more powerful magic than Circe and offer, at least for Annabeth, more tempting information.

The Sirens represent what people wish for most, and for Annabeth, they symbolize her fatal flaw of hubris—believing she can do better than everyone else. Through listening to their song, Annabeth learns how similar her desires are to Luke’s, something which troubles her deeply. She wants to make the world a better place by rebuilding it. Unlike Luke, she doesn’t want to destroy the current version, but the similarity still makes her second guess her motives. Knowledge leaves Annabeth off-balance and confused, rather than more confident.

Percy also grapples with learning uncomfortable information about himself. Percy doesn’t fully recover from being transformed into a guinea pig by the end of the book.