Artemis Reborn: The Princess Diana

Artemis, also known by her Roman name, Diana, is the goddess of the chase and the chaste; hunters, childbirth, nurturer of the young and protector of chastity.

Artemis is an interesting goddess and here’s why: she is a twin of Apollo, and child of the goddess Leto (and an unfaithful Zeus). Artemis was the firstborn of the twins, but Leto had great difficulty giving birth to her brother, Apollo. It is said that the newborn Artemis helped her mother give birth to her brother. So Artemis stepped into a childbirth/childcare role literally as soon as she was born.

Artemis also loved to hunt and was skilled at it, and is usually depicted with hunting knives, a bow and arrow, deer, and hunting dogs. Like Athena, Artemis is often depicted with a typically male energy. It’s interesting to note that both goddesses chose to remain chaste, never marrying or having children. They enjoy more respect and agency than most of the other goddesses, perhaps because of this choice.

The idea of a chaste woman being somehow more respectable than those in touch with their sexuality, like Aphrodite, for example, is a tale as old as time – or at least as old as Artemis. In the early 1900s, Sigmund Freud described this phenomenon as the “Madonna-Whore complex,” in which he argues that a woman can be either respected or sexually desirable but never both simultaneously.

This archetype can certainly be seen to play out in our present society. But perhaps one of the most interesting examples of recent times is Diana, Princess of Wales, who is even named after the goddess herself.

In 1981, Diana became engaged to Charles, Prince of Wales at the age of just nineteen, when he was thirty-two. Throughout Diana’s life she was presented as a nurturer of the young and protector of chastity. She even worked in a daycare. As the Princess, she gave birth to two sons, Princes William and Harry, and she remained a “sweetheart” of the world press throughout her marriage. This “Princess of the People” was a prominent, strong, and protecting force.

Princess Diana is famous for being a part of the royal family, of course. However, she was much more than simply a figurehead. In the midst of the AIDS/HIV crisis, when it was still unclear how the disease spread or if there would ever be a cure, Princess Diana stepped up. She would visit the sick and touch and hug them when few others would. The well-loved princess was the patron for over 100 charities. Princess Diana inspired the world and we will never forget the influence that she had on our population.

Diana, Princess of Wales visits a hostel for abandoned children in Sao Paulo, Brazil, many of them HIV positive or suffering from AIDS

Eventually, however, the fairytale fell apart. Prince Charles was unfaithful to Diana and their marriage ended in divorce in 1995. After the divorce, when Diana began dating other people, the press interest and representation of her changed to salacious, obsessive, and gossipy. Diana was pursued, “chased” by paparazzi wherever she went. Photographers chased boats she was on and published photos of her in bathing suits. Diana went from Madonna to whore.

This ended in tragedy in Paris in 1997, when the car Diana was being driven in was chased so aggressively and recklessly by paparazzi that it crashed in an underground tunnel, killing all passengers, including the driver.

Diana after walking through an active landmine field on January 15, 1997, in Huambo, Angola.

Comparing Diana to Artemis, we can see many similarities. Diana was viewed as almost goddess-like. She acted in the service of justice, and to protect people from war, illnesses, poverty, and more. She was a nurturer of the young who loved children and was loved by them. She began as a symbol for chastity, and then fidelity. But when that fidelity was broken, even though not by her, it’s as if the image we had concocted of Diana as an Artemis archetype became incompatible with reality – and the tables turned.

Earl Spencer, Diana's brother, stated at her funeral: "It is a point to remember that of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this: a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age."