The Battle of Olympus/Phthia

Obtaining Hephaestos' weapon
When you arrive in Phthia, you will appear through door A in the lower left corner of section A. Habit or instinct may tell you to head to the right, but you should actually investigate the left side of Phthia first. The strength and health obtained there will better prepare you for the right side. Before you proceed, you should have the Eye of Graeae, the key from the man in Athens, and 70 Olives. If you don't have 70 Olives, return to Attica and fight Satyrs until you collect the necessary amount. Full health isn't necessary, but highly advisable.

The Olives are particularly important. You are about to make a dangerous trek across mountain peaks where slipping off a ledge means an instant loss of half your Olives. This makes getting to your destination with a full 70 Olives particularly difficult. If you are not using emulators, or any device capable of saving your state, you should make sure that you get a password from Athena, in the closest temple to your location. If you have 70 Olives and feel prepared to proceed, then climb up the stairs above door A, and head left to section B.

Some Eagles will be flying overhead with rocks in their claws, and a Monkey will be perched on the ledge to your left. It's a good idea to use flames from the Staff of Fennel to clear away the monkey before dropping down to the ledge below and climbing down the stairs to section C. When you appear in section C, you'll be standing on a high ledge and vulnerable to attack from Eagles. Ignore the Pill-bugs below and leap over to the ledge on the left. You'll spot another Monkey waiting to pounce on you. Stay on the ledge, but move close enough to the Monkey to make him leap. He should land on the edge of his ledge. Make him jump one more time and he'll land behind you.

Jump to the next ledge above a Pill-bug. From there, you must jump to the ledge on your left, but as soon as you land, a Monkey will leap toward you. You must land on this ledge as far to the left as you can so that when the Monkey hits you, you don't get pushed off the right side and into the water, instantly losing half of your Olives. Once the Monkey hits you, keep pushing left so that you fall off the ledge and to the ground below where another Pill-bug runs back and forth. Quickly duck inside door B, where you will find a Spring of Recovery. This will not only restore your wounds, but give you a chance to take a break before continuing.

Once you are healed up, head back outside, and begin climbing the staircases that return you to the left side of section B. Immediately continue left, on to section D. Let the first pair of Eagles fly by and dodge the rocks they drop before attempting the leap to the next ledge. Another Monkey will be waiting for you, so push to the left side of the ledge to avoid getting knocked off, and the continue on. After jumping to a particularly low ledge, you'll jump back up to a higher ledge that is thinner. You must be extremely careful in this section. Another Monkey will leap toward you. It is possible to get past the Monkey without getting hit. Hold as you jump. This will cause you to kneel as you slide across the surface. You can still jump while kneeling, so slide until the Monkey leaps over you, and then jump when the coast is clear. Then get down to the ground in front of door C as quickly as you can to avoid getting knocked off.

Step inside the door and you will find yourself in the Temple of Hephaestos. He will offer to sell you his greatest weapon for 70 Olives. Accept his offer, and you will receive the Divine Sword. If you press while swinging this sword, you will use the power of Argus and fire off a bolt of lightning. This power comes at a cost of half of a bar of health, but that can be fixed. After buying his sword, he hints that you can find the Garden of the Hesperides on the other side of the waterfall. Now that you have spent your 70 Olives, it's not so terrible if you fall off of a ledge, but there is still another item to obtain before returning to section A.

Leave the temple, and make your way back to section B. The Monkeys should leap over your head as you jump to their ledges. Before you reach the right side of section D, be sure to jump up to the higher of the two ledges. By doing so, you will be high enough to jump over to the ledge to your right when you enter section B. Continue right until you reach a small doorway, B. Step inside, and you will find a man who will kindly give you another Ambrosia. Now you are ready for the right side of Phthia. To make your way back to section A, you'll have to first return to the left and climb down to section C. Then return to the right and climb back up.

Visiting the Garden
Once you've made it back to section A, start heading to the right. You'll have to watch out for a Monkey as you make your way across. Try to remove him with flames from the Staff of Fennel, and do the same to the Monkey that lies at the bottom of the stairs you must climb to reach section E. Be especially careful when climbing these stair to avoid any rocks dropped on you by the Eagles, as they still do a considerable amount of damage to you. Deal with the Pill-bugs if you need to and proceed to section E.

A door (F) at the top of the stairs contains a man with info about the garden. When you're ready, try to remove the Monkey ahead of you before proceeding right. When it's out of the way, keep going right, and you will eventually encounter the Centaur. The Centaur is a challenging boss, but you're not required to defeat it, so you can either attempt to deal with it, or take some damage while slipping past it. The easiest way to deal with it, is to actually use the power of the Divine Sword and shoot lighting at it. Although you will lose health by using the power of Argus, you'll only lose a fraction of what you would lose trying to fight it any other way. Four bolts of lightning is all that it will take.

Whether you defeat the Centaur, or just get past it, you'll find a waterfall to his right. Not only does this waterfall hide an entrance, it actually hides two. One is on the ground level, but if you step inside through the spot marked with a red G, you'll notice that inside section F, there is ledge above that also contains an entrance. To reach it, you'll have to leap from a high ledge near the waterfall, and push to pass through the spot marked with the red H. This will place you on the upper ledge in section F.

This section is just a dark cave containing nothing but Pill-bugs. However, you may recall hearing about another Nymph being locked away in here. In fact, if you use the Eye of Graeae in the right location, you'll reveal another hidden door (marked by the red L). However, you must be on the top ledge to access it. In addition, once you step inside, you'll find a locked door. The only way that you can access whatever is behind the door is by possessing the Key. Assuming you do, you may head inside and you will find a Nymph that will provide you with the second Fragment of Love. Upon collecting it, the letter from Helene will inform you that the entrance to Tartarus can be found along the sea between Crete and Argolis.

After returning to the dark cave, you'll need to proceed to the right to reach section G. However, before you exit, it's a good idea to run back and forth and fight Pill-bugs until you earn enough Bay leaves to restore your health. Use flames from the Staff of Fennel to destroy the bugs. Collecting more Olives in the process won't hurt either, as you'll be needing plenty of them in Crete. Head through either door (J or M) to access section G.

When you step outside, all may see idyllic in the Garden of the Hesperides, but you must continue to be on guard. You will be attacked by dust-dropping Butterflies and fire-spitting Flowers. There's little you can do about the Butterflies since they are difficult to attack, but you can leap over the fire that the flowers spit and slash them with your sword when you land. You'll have to repeat this all the way to the right toward section H.

You'll encounter two more flowers as you proceed through section H before the boss music starts up. As you reach the right side of the garden, you'll encounter the dragon which guards this domain, known as Ladon. Ladon floats about up and down through the air, and its head is its only vulnerable spot. If you watch it carefully, you will spot where it begins to fly upward. If you kneel down just before that location and stab in front of you, Ladon will continuously fly into your sword and loop around to get struck repeatedly, without ever hitting you, allowing you to defeat Ladon with ease. Your reward for doing so will be the Golden Apple. This is a very special item that won't appear in your inventory, but upon eating it, all damage done to Orpheus will be cut in half! In addition, all of your lost health will be restored.

Now that you have defeat Ladon and earned the Golden Apple, you are ready to tackle the island maze of ../Crete/. You must return through sections H, G, F, and E, where the Centaur will return. Once again, you're not obligated to fight him, although clearing him out of the way may make progress easier. Reach the left side of section E and climb down the stairs to section A. Watch out for the Eagles that come sailing through while you climb down. Ignore the Pill-bugs and make your way over to the ledge on the left that contains a single sun monument. Use your Harp here to summon Pegasus. He will come to collect you and drop you off in section C of ../Laconia/. Once there, run to the right and use the Ocarina to summon the dolphin. (Before you do this, you may wish to fight Satyrs until you have collected at least 80 Olives.) Swim to the right, to the island of ruins. Then, on the right side of the island, use the Ocarina again to summon another dolphin, and swim off to the right to reach ../Crete/.