Who Is Naked Athena? Meet The Protestor Who Stripped Down In Front Of Police In Oregon
That's one way to distract the cops.
Youtube As Black Lives Matter and social justice protests continue throughout the US, another one happened on Friday night in Portland, Oregon — but this time, the protest made headlines for a seriously unexpected reason: One of the protestors was completely naked from head to toe, distracting police who had come to break up the gathering.
The woman has been dubbed Naked Athena, and she's grabbed the attention of people all over the world for her unconventional tactics.
Who is Naked Athena?
Naked Athena took off her clothes at a protest over the weekend.
As photographer Dave Killen, who was at the protest, told media, it was almost 2 a.m. when Naked Athena arrived, wearing just a face mask and a cap. She appeared in the crosswalk, laying down in the street and lifting her legs, leaving everyone there "surprised and astounded."
“She was incredibly vulnerable,” he told the outlet. “It would have been incredibly painful to be shot with any of those munitions with no clothes on.”
When she arrived, the scene in Portland was beginning to turn dangerous.
Police were beginning to use force to break up the crowd with the Portland police tweeting that they'd deployed tear gas into the crowd. It seemed that Athena had shown up at exactly the right time to serve as a distraction, though Killen did say that they had fired pepper balls at her feet.
Police backed off when she showed up.
Surprisingly enough, Athena's appearance seemed to stun officers so much that they left the scene about 10 minutes after she'd arrived and Killen said that she did not speak, even when a fellow protestor attempted to step in front of her and try to shield her.
Naked Athena photos are going viral.
Since photos of Athena have hit the internet, people can't help but be curious about the naked woman. Photos of her have been circulating all over Twitter, piquing everyone's interest — especially since, amid all of this, she's somehow managed to remain anonymous.
There's also a Naked Athena video.
The first mention of Athena online seems to be In journalist Donovan Farley's tweets, where he shared a video of the woman and called her by the nickname for the first time. It's not clear why he decided to call her that but given that in Greek mythology, Athena is the goddess of war, it seems like a very fitting choice.
Naked Athena's real identity is still a mystery.
So far, no one has come forward to take credit for being Athena — and no one has been able to figure out her true identity, either, which makes sense, since her face doesn't seem to have been captured in any of the photos circulating. We may never know who Naked Athena truly is unless she comes forward but there's no doubt these photos will live on as a symbol of the protests that have continued all summer long.
Nicole Pomarico is an entertainment and lifestyle writer whose work has appeared in Cosmo, Us Weekly, Refinery29, and more.