Query S3 data using Athena without Glue Data Catalog?

No , Athena uses the AWS Glue Data Catalog to store and retrieve table metadata for the Amazon S3 data.

Read - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/athena/latest/ug/glue-athena.html

Yes - It is possible to query S3 data (semi-structured json files) using s3 data without Glue Catalog via S3 select.

Does S3 select option work for you ?

Read this - > https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/storage/querying-data-without-servers-or-databases-using-amazon-s3-select/

Read more - > https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/s3-select-sql-reference-select.html

Sure, here's an example using the OpenStreetMaps public dataset:

# Create db
CREATE DATABASE osm;

# Create table
CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE planet (
  id BIGINT,
  type STRING,
  tags MAP<STRING,STRING>,
  lat DECIMAL(9,7),
  lon DECIMAL(10,7),
  nds ARRAY<STRUCT<ref: BIGINT>>,
  members ARRAY<STRUCT<type: STRING, ref: BIGINT, role: STRING>>,
  changeset BIGINT,
  timestamp TIMESTAMP,
  uid BIGINT,
  user STRING,
  version BIGINT
)
STORED AS ORCFILE
LOCATION 's3://osm-pds/planet/';

# Test Query
select * from planet limit 100;