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Every person has DNA containing 46 chromosomes, 23 each from the mother and father. If there's a significant fault in the DNA the embryo simply won't be viable.

How then, if the gods don't have DNA can they produce not only viable offspring, but offspring that looks like them? Surely their offspring would only have 23 chromosomes (from the human mother/father) and would be non-viable.

Has this ever been addressed?

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  • I can't recall which book this is discussed in, but Athena did not give birth to Annabeth despite being her mother.
    – Verdan
    Commented Jan 10, 2019 at 15:57

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This is addressed in Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian. In short, gods don't have DNA but nor do they have any of the other attributes that you'd normally associate with a living being since they're godly beings animated by a golden fluid called ichor which has magical properties.

That rule had come up a lot when Silena and Beckendorf started dating. And I know some of you might be thinking: aren’t all demigods related on the godly side, and doesn’t that make dating gross? But the thing is, the godly side of your family doesn’t count genetically speaking, since gods don’t have DNA. A demigod would never think about dating someone who had the same godly parent. Like two kids from Athena cabin? No way. But a daughter of Aphrodite and a son of Hephaestus? They’re not related. So it’s no problem.

Ichor features quite heavily in the original greek mythos and is a 'blest' (blessed) substance which confers immortality.

Blood follow'd, but immortal; ichor pure,
Such as the blest inhabitants of heav'n
May bleed, nectareous; for the Gods eat not
Man's food, nor slake as he with sable wine
Their thirst, thence bloodless and from death exempt.

Iliad V. 339–342 - Per Wikipedia

This substance is capable of animating even metal (like the protector Giant Talos or the Khalkotauroi)

Father Zeus, surely great wonder rises in my mind, seeing that dire destruction meets us not from disease and wounds alone, but lo! even from afar, may be, it tortures us! So Talos, for all his frame of bronze, yielded the victory to the might of Medea the sorceress. And as he was heaving massy rocks to stay them from reaching the haven, he grazed his ankle on a pointed crag; and the ichor gushed forth like melted lead; and not long thereafter did he stand towering on the jutting cliff.

Argonautica Book 4: The Bronze Giant Talos

As to how this works in humans, the simple (and sadly not very scientific) answer is that the godly component of their composition simply takes care of any problems that would normally be associated with missing chromosomes, the whole thing being hand-waved away by the same magic that allows the gods to exist.

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    I'd forgotten this. What a convoluted explanation. If Riordan was worried about concentration of recessive genetic diseases (which is the biological issue with inbreeding), why not just say that the gods don't have them, but still have DNA when they manifest? They are gods, after all. If Riordan was concerned about the social aspect...well, obviously, he's not.
    – Adamant
    Commented Jan 10, 2019 at 17:51
  • @Adamant - I think the primary concern is that in the original myths, the gods were clearly directly related but also quite happily committed incest, leading to all kinds of unpleasant consequences for the demigods. That's all well and good for Greek myths and legends (where you can just say "oh well, it was all a long time ago and people didn't have the same understanding that we do" but it's a lot harder to hand-wave for characters that are living in contemporary times.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 10, 2019 at 17:54
  • What I'm saying is that if those consequences were social, Riordan hasn't solved anything; if they were biological, he's come up with a much more involved explanation than he needs.
    – Adamant
    Commented Jan 10, 2019 at 18:05
  • @Valorum - "it's a lot harder to hand-wave for characters that are living in contemporary times" - Why? Gods are magic. Magic isn't science. Although for the last several decades there has been a (unfortunate, in my opinion) movement in fantasy to try to make magic more "scientific" - talking about energy flows, worrying about mass conservation in werecreatures, etc. The essence of magic is either a) wishing makes it so, or b) you can control a powerful entity which will do what you want. Anything else just dilutes what magic can do.
    – WhatRoughBeast
    Commented Jan 11, 2019 at 1:09
  • @WhatRoughBeast - It's a lot harder to handwave incest, I mean. It's the sorta thing that audiences pick up on
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 11, 2019 at 1:28
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The demigods' divine (godly) DNA is ichor (the gold blood of the gods, in Greek mythology), which is metaphysical (made of spirit matter)-not physical (visible/tangible).

Also, ichor can be injected by the gods into mortals to make them their demigod children and their submissive servants, messengers &/or warriors. The gods can also magically alter demigod DNA for their desired effect.

NOTES:

-Ichor grants its beholder or consumer divine powers. Monsters hunt demigods for their ichor to gain them.

-Ichor makes demigods' eyes glow white/irises glow gold, their body/hair catch on fire, as well as lips and veins glow gold when angry or using their powers.

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