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Morales highlights a notable case where the identity of an Ancient Greek goddess is adapted to communicate a strong message about a Mexican woman's extreme resistance to local sexual abuse in the town of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The woman, going by the pseudonym "La Diana, la Cazadora de Choferes", or Diana, the Hunter of Bus Drivers, murdered several male bus drivers with a handgun motivated by revenge due to the prevalence of rape and sexual abuse cases from male bus drivers to vulnerable women in the city, particularly with those working maquila shifts. She takes her name not directly from Greek mythology but from a statue in Mexico, La Diana Cazadora, a statue of a naked woman with a bow and arrow symbolizing freedom. Morales discusses several other statues in Mexico City's Alameda Central, a large public park, noting how their original connotation as depictions of ancient Greek characters had faded in cultural memory. In particular, a statue of 2 Danaids, women in a Greek myth where women had to pour water in perpetuity for the crime of murdering their husbands, stood out to her as it so strongly symbolized the unfair patriarchal system women lived and continue to live under. In keeping with this theme, Morales discusses how the imagery of Diana---a goddess wielding a bow and arrow for hunting---has been subtly or not subtly invoked for many movies and books, symbolizing a figure representing resistance by hunting, straying from what is traditionally seen as not a female practice. Morales then returns to the topic of revenge as a resort for women resisting a patriarchal system, concluding that violence is somewhat of a forced option in the "rigged game" that is an unjust patriarchal system.

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Is the The Hunter of Bus Drivers intentionally invoking Ancient Greek mythology, or is it simply a byproduct of how history led the La Diana Cazadora to be built with such imagery? Does this reflect on the strength of Diana's universally engaging imagery, that of a woman with a violent weapon embodying freedom? Why does this idea simply seems to resonate no matter the time period?

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At what point does violence become a rightful means of protest towards oppression? What is lost when we romanticize or mythologize retribution violence, particularly in case of woman standing up against patriarchy? Can invoking mythological archetypes like Diana or Artemis in modern activism and protest risk detaching lived experiences from material realities, especially when myths are reimagined across cultural contexts?

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Diana as a prototype for female strength 

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Diana as a prototype for female strength 

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https://vocal.media/education/the-mythological-roots-of-katniss-everdeen-unveiling-the-ancient-heroes-behind-the-hunger-games

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While the statues were most likely originally built just for the purpose of providing art, the actual mythology behind it so strongly depicting the crime of resisting an unfair, unjust patriarchal seems to bother Morales. Yet, the local man cleaning the area merely calls them "The Water Carriers," signifying how cultural memory has faded on the deeper meaning behind these statues.

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"Diana herself saw her role as advocating for those “rejected by society,” with whom she felt an “affinity."

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Twenty-five years after her untimely death, the legacy of Diana, Princess of Wales-more commonly known as Princess Diana-endures. For gender and cultural studies scholar Jane Caputi, who considered Diana's iconic status in the years immediately following her death, the former royal's image draws its power and longevity from mythology, specifically the parallels between the narratives of Diana, the goddess, and the life of Diana Spencer, the woman. Princess Diana's popularity and power was "based in infinite background layers of older tales that infuse the surface narrative with memory, color, nuance, soul, and meta-morphic power," writes Caputi.

The ancient goddess Diana evolved as a "folk" deity, seen as protector of the underclasses- the people's goddess -a role that the public assigned to Diana Spencer as well. "Values associated with Princess Diana include compassion, love, and recognition of the primacy of the common people," Caputi notes.

Diana herself saw her role as advocating for those "rejected by society," with whom she felt an "affinity."

Then-Prime Minister Tony Blair posthumously dubbed Diana the "People's princess" for her common touch. Rather than serving as an "icon of whiteness, privilege, race and class superiority," Caputi argues, Diana herself saw her role as advocating for those "rejected by society," with whom she felt an "affinity": those diagnosed with AIDS, landmine victims, and homeless youth. Of course, it's not mutually exclusive. Diana arguably was (and is) a symbol of white privilege and class superiority while simultaneously wielding an empathy that made others feel she was more "of the people" than "of the establishment."

For those with less favorable opinions of Diana, there was the ancient construct of the Great Bitch ("The multiple teats/breasts of the Ephesian Diana refer to these origins," explains Caputi). Hecate-Artemis (Diana) was depicted in the Ionian period as a "whelping Bitch," and the word may have become a slur in Christian Europe because of its association with this destructive, vengeful goddess of wild animals.

Caputi shares the reaction of art historian Simon Schama to an interview with the Princess of Wales that was televised in 1995 as part of the BBC's docuseries, Panorama. Schama explicitly evokes the mythological Diana in reference to the princess's persona: "Treat her badly and she'll treat you to a quiver full of arrows," he suggests. Drawing on animal imagery, he characterizes Princess Diana as having "turned from desperate molting swan into bird of prey... an exterminating angel."

"Such hyperbole reflects the threat that Diana posed in manifesting those most denied, feared, and potent aspects of archetypal female sacred power," writes Caputi.

Princess Diana's brother, Charles, has also been instrumental in forging his late sister's mythology. At her funeral, he emphasized the connection between goddess and princess, describing her as "the hunted, not the huntress." The mythological was further concretized with the thirty-six oak trees, referencing the oak grove of Diana of Nemi in antiquity, that line the drive to Althorp, her childhood home and site of her burial. Her grave rests on an island, inaccessible to the public. Across from the island, a Doric temple displays Diana's name and silhouette. Writes Caputi,

Pilgrims visit, bringing flowers, and written and sketched prayers and remembrances to a Diana whom we might recognize as an emerging deity, both ancient and new. Althorp is public only during the months of July and August, opening on the day of her birth and closing the day before her death. August may soon again be heralded as the sacred festival month of the Goddess Diana.

The "mytho-religious" behaviour around celebrity culture-worship and idolatry, ritual sacrifice and scapegoating-can show how mythic traditions are "antecedents of contemporary ideas." Twenty-five years after an admittedly tragic death, a new kind of celebrity culture fueled by social media, a nostalgic pop culture, and recent tumultuous events in the British royal family have made Diana's myth pertinent again: Diana as victim, Diana as victor, Diana as guardian angel, Diana as avenging angel. "It is myth, archetype, and icon that enable the expression of otherwise remote or ineffable concepts and emotions," offers Caputi. The endurance of the myth of Diana perhaps also demonstrates how we still struggle to make sense of her life and death, and our reactions to both.
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The Goddess and the Princess: Why Diana Endures - JSTOR Daily

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Twenty-five years have passed since the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, yet pop culture and gossip mags continue to be fascinated by her life and legacy.

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The Psychology Behind Her Anger: Understanding Female Rage

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Diana's Revenge in the stories of Actaeon and Niobe 

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Diana's Revenge in the stories of Actaeon and Niobe 

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Although modern portrayals of Diana often align with the popular tropes as the empowered female archer, her depiction in Metamorphoses in the stories of Actaeon and Niobe presents a very different image. Rather than standing as a symbol of female resistance against patriarchal injustice, Diana appears instead as a cruel, harsh goddess dishing out vengeance without proper care for justice. In the case of Actaeon especially, her actions feel disproportionately severe, delivering death as punishment for Actaeon merely walking through the woods to find her bathing. This contrast suggests a possible disconnect between the original narratives of the myth and the more contemporary reimagining of Diana as a resilient, heroic figure.

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'A rapist in your path': Chilean protest song becomes feminist anthem

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Taking into consideration the controversy around La Diana's nudity in the Mexico City, how does it undermine or complete the original myth? Can it be seen as fetishization of female strength? Do popular representations of the “strong woman” reflect empowerment or simply another form of male fantasy?

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Rape? Self defense? Women's legal rights in human history.

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Rape? Self defense? Women's legal rights in human history.

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“...'criminalized'” because the law is unlikely
to protect her even when she kills in self-defense"

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The Arkansas Journal of Social Change and Public Service

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A Reflection on the History of Sexual Assault Laws in the United States

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A Reflection on the History of Sexual Assault Laws in the United States. by Kyla Bishop The views expressed in this post are those of the author, and do not ... A Reflection on the History of Sexual Assault Laws in the United States