The axe she blesses for Prometheus

The axe she blesses for Prometheus One of the clearest examples of Diana actually putting a spell together is the rescue of Prometheus. She cuts her own hand against the axe, coats it with her blood, and calls on Themis and Dike. The request is specific: let the axe strike true in service of justice for somebody being held unjustly. The blade takes on a golden glow, and her throw cuts his chains. That does not mean she has found a spell that cancels anything Zeus has ever done. She tells Prometheus outright that she cannot free him permanently. What she can give him is a break, water, and an agreement with the eagle to stop eating him. She also knows another eagle could replace that one. The spell works on the immediate problem without erasing the larger punishment. That is a much more interesting limit than treating the axe as a universal divine lockpick. She then asks Prometheus for blood to help power the weapon she is making. She promises to use it to defend humanity, even if that puts her against the gods. He gives her flesh and blood; she invokes Hecate while receiving that offering, connecting it to justice, fire and life. This is one stage of the weapon's creation, not evidence that every later use requires a fresh sacrifice. Also, the Pegasus resurrection in this sequence belongs to Prometheus. Diana witnesses and benefits from it, but she is not the one resurrecting the horse. What she does to the basilisk The basilisk fight is a good example of why calling her a witch should mean more than saying she has magic powers. She plans around the creature's senses. She magically blinds herself before she enters because the stories say its gaze can kill. She is not certain the stories are literal, but she is not gambling her life on the distinction. She also removes her own sense of smell. That matters because the weapon she brings into the cave is a prepared object that releases an unbearable odor. She magnifies that smell ten-thousandfold with magic. The basilisk's acute sense of smell becomes the thing that overwhelms it, while she has already protected herself from the same attack. Then she finishes it with the axe. This is not a single vague anti-basilisk spell. It is several choices working together: take away her sight, take away her smell, intensify the bait, and exploit the opening. The issue does not give us a full recipe for that odor or a formal spell name. It does give the amplification and the protective preparation. Those are the details worth keeping rather than making up ingredients. Justice as a condition of power After the chimera fight, Diana calls on Themis again, this time asking her to join Hecate in granting power and strength in the face of an injustice. She touches the bloodied creature, her eyes and head flare red, and the next page shows her rising in a blaze of red energy. Hades notices the power. Diana makes the connection to Circe being unjustly imprisoned and demands that he honor the game. I would not turn that into a claim that Diana can beat Hades whenever she says the right prayer. That is not what happens. She does not overthrow him in a fight. She insists on a reckoning and on the terms being honored. The scene does show that her relationship with justice is part of her magic, not just a speech she gives after the fighting is over. The way she gets Circe out also needs to be kept separate from spellcasting. Diana has eaten one of Persephone's pomegranate seeds. One seed means one month in the Underworld each year: she is allowed to return, but she is also obligated to return. Hades' attempt to forbid her ever coming back runs into that existing rule. Persephone backs the rule with her own ultimatum. Diana can then return and free Circe, but she cannot touch the Wild Isle when she brings her mother home without beginning that month's stay. It is a bargain with real terms, not consequence-free teleportation.