901 research outputs found
Roman Apollo and kindred deities
At this point it may be well to review the Roman
cult of Apollo as we have found it, and its development
throughout the Roman period, comparing it briefly with the
cult as it came to them from the Greeks. As a background
to this study we shall bear in mind the fact that the Greeks
being closer to their :Eastern origins than the Romans, their
religion often shows a tendency to mysticism and to a childlike reverence which rather avoids than seeks complete explanation or application.We have seen that, when at the height of its
popularity and influence in Rome, the cult of Apollo was an
important part of the state religion. It was in fact at
no time, except perhaps for less than fifty years before
our records begin, entirely outside the national religion,
and it was never to any extent a matter of personal belief
or private emotion. This in itself, however, does not
mean that it lacked either sincerity or influence. If we
would find a parallel, the feelings ,of the Romans about
their official religious ceremonies and institutions, and
therefore about almost all their religion, must have been
similar to ours as we stand with the crowd to sing a solemn
traditional hymn at a time of national emergency, or listen
to the speech of an archbishop or king which ends with a
sort of patriarchal blessing. In both cases the religious act represents the lowest common multiple of the spiritual
experience of a people. But there is an instructive
difference. In the case of the Romans, there were not many
people of very high spiritual development and in fact the
loftier souls did not rise very far above the general level.
Likewise, the general level being low, few would fall far
below it. This would be true, at any rate, until Christianity
arrived to upset the balance, Under such conditions it was
comparatively easy to find and use the common factor, and
only too easy for religion to be stabilized at the most convenient level. Polytheism has also great advantages as the
type of a national religion, because deities and cults can
be retained to meet the needs of those who fall short of
or surpass the general level of spiritual development.We have here some of the reasons why the religions
of ancient Greece and Rome seldom received the impetus and
challenge of religious leaders, reformers or "prophets ".
This has been remarked by A.B. Drachmann ( Atheism in
Pagan Antiquity) who, incidentally, in his study of atheism
has revealed rather more about religion than irreligion.
He writes (p. 15): "But what is characteristic of the
whole process is the fact that it went on without breaks
or sudden bounds. Nowhere in ancient religion, as far as
we can trace it, did a powerful religious personality strike
in with a radical transformation, with a direct rejection
of old ideas and dogmatic accentuation of new ones."As we have found, however, in tracing the history
of the Roman cult of Apollo, there was, especially in that
cult, a continual demand for such a religious leader. We
have called him an "Apolline prophet" and have tried to indicate some of those who from time to time, for a smaller
or larger section of Apollo's worshippers, fulfilled this
function. It is probably in the context of this hope that
we should place such literature as Virgil's Fourth Eclogue.
This poem has recently been discussed by Professor H.J.
Rose, in "The Eclogues of Vergil" where he rejects the
suggestion of Norden and others that the "child" is merely
allegorical. The grounds of this rejection are that the
concluding lines of the poem seem to refer vividly to a
human mother, and that the personification of a period of
time does not occur elsewhere in classical literature.
The latter objection is certainly very strong in relation
to the argument of Norden which is quoted (H.J. Rose, op,
cit. p. 208 -9). The former, however, is applicable to
Prof. Rose's own theory almost as much as to that of Norden.
For Prof. Rose suggests that the father of the "wonder -child"
is Octavian, who, though not actually a father when the poem
was written, is regarded by the poet as inaugurating a
Golden Age for the continuance of which he would certainly
require an heir. The mother of the child, however, would
as yet be unknown, though she would not be the abstract
figure required by the other theory.We would therefore suggest that the child in the
Fourth Eclogue of Virgil is, primarily, the Apolline prophet
whom we have traced through about seven centuries. In so
far as Virgil envisaged the earthly parentage of this child
it may be readily admitted that he thought of Octavian,
to whom might be attributed the very possibility of this
Golden Age. The address to Follio may, as has often been
suggested, refer to the hope of a rapprochement between
Octavian and Antony during his time of office, and so to
a further union of Apolline and Dionysiac religion. Most
of the other features of the poem, and its general stru.ture,
require no further explanation than that given by ProfeBsor
Rose (op.cit. p. 167ff.) who would connect it with rhetorical
or poetical forms of birthday or marriage tributes.In the Roman cult of Apollo, therefore, we have
traced the continuation of the search for an Apolline prophet,
and also, the development among the Romans of the idea of
prophecy and of the providential government of the world.
Through the Sibylline Books and the ideas therewith associated, the Romans grew to recognise not merely the idea of
Spontaneous and casual prophecy, but of a controlled and
controlling "fatum" in relation to which their own efforts
had their place.In the cult of Apollo Medicus and Aesculapius we
have discerned some of the Romans' own progress in the
understanding of health and healing. It has also become
clear that they did not receive in this respect all that
the Greek civilisation could offer, and that we have been
the poorer for what they could not transmit. The influence,
however, of the traditions of religious healing which the
Romans were able to accept has been traced asfaras the
Christian era, and some estimate of its contribution tt
Christian thought and action has been attempted.It would appear that, in general, the history
of Apolline religion was that of a constant striving to
express in practice a spiritual ideal, or to find someone
capable of such expression. Most, however, of Roman, if
not of Greek, religion was in essentials the reverse of
this, namely an attempt to spiritualize practical expedients.
If Christianity finally proved to have a greater appeal in
the ancient world than the religion of Apollo, it was
mainly because it seemed able to provide this long -sought
expression of spiritual values. Apolline religion pre-
:pared the way, however feebly, for this development in the
Hellenistic and Roman world, but, as we have tried to show,
there were two conflicting lines of influence operative
upon the development of the Roman cult of Apollo. These
we have called the Etruscan and the Greek spirit in religion,
realising, however, that they cannot be completely dis-
:tinguished at any period. The influence and effects which
we are concerned to trace here, and those which have proved
their validity in relation to subsequent religious progress,
belong mainly to the heritage derived by the Romans from
the Greek world.It seems that the spiritual quest which we have
detected in Apolline religion is, in some form, an essential
preparation for the acceptance of Christianity. In so far as later generations have missed such necessary
preparation, their understanding of Christian doctrine
has been the weaker. .ë:aui the time of the early Christian
Fathers, the Church has also borrowed freely from the other
side of Roman religious tradition which we have traced ul-
:timately to Etruria. ':There this has taken place, it has
often resulted in obscuring, perhaps only temporarily, the
broader, freer enlightenment associated with Apollo. To
that extent have we, like many former generations, been
deprived of one of the fundamental conditions of a higher
spiritual development, a condition which, with our present
meagre spiritual equipment, it is difficult otherwise
to attain
The Analysis of Isochrone Fitting Methods for Red Giant Branch Photometry, and Tip Red Giant Branch Distance Determination
We consider the procedure of isochrone fitting and its application to the
study of red giant branch (RGB) photometry in old stellar populations. This is
extended to consider the problems introduced by the inclusion of
lower-magnitude regions of the Colour Magnitude Diagram (CMD). We refer
especially to our previous paper Frayn & Gilmore (2002), where the details of
our isochrone interpolation and fitting code are explained.
We address the systematic errors inherent in the process of isochrone
fitting, and investigate the extent to which simple stellar populations can be
recovered from noisy photometric data. We investigate the effects caused by
inaccurate distance estimates, isochrone model variation and photometric
errors. We present results from two studies of approximately coeval stellar
populations, those of the Milky Way Globular Cluster System (MWGCS), and the
Ursa Minor dwarf spheroidal galaxy.
In addition, we introduce a new method for estimating distances using
photometry of the tip of the RGB which is significantly more robust than the
standard edge-detection filter.Comment: 11 pages, 17 postscript figure
Femoral Adipose Tissue May Accumulate the Fat That Has Been Recycled as VLDL and Nonesterified Fatty Acids
OBJECTIVE: Gluteo-femoral, in contrast to abdominal, fat accumulation appears protective against diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Our objective was to test the hypothesis that this reflects differences in the ability of the two depots to sequester fatty acids, with gluteo-femoral fat acting as a longer-term "sink." RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 12 healthy volunteers were studied after an overnight fast and after ingestion of a mixed meal. Blood samples were taken from veins draining subcutaneous femoral and abdominal fat and compared with arterialized blood samples. Stable isotope-labeled fatty acids were used to trace specific lipid fractions. In 36 subjects, adipose tissue blood flow in the two depots was monitored with (133)Xe. RESULTS: Blood flow increased in response to the meal in both depots, and these responses were correlated (r(s) = 0.44, P < 0.01). Nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) release was suppressed after the meal in both depots; it was lower in femoral fat than in abdominal fat (P < 0.01). Plasma triacylglycerol (TG) extraction by femoral fat was also lower than that by abdominal fat (P = 0.05). Isotopic tracers showed that the difference was in chylomicron-TG extraction. VLDL-TG extraction and direct NEFA uptake were similar in the two depots. CONCLUSIONS: Femoral fat shows lower metabolic fluxes than subcutaneous abdominal fat, but differs in its relative preference for extracting fatty acids directly from the plasma NEFA and VLDL-TG pools compared with chylomicron-TG
An upper mass limit for the progenitor of the TypeII-P supernova SN1999gi
Masses and progenitor evolutionary states of TypeII supernovae remain almost
unconstrained by direct observations. Only one robust observation of a
progenitor (SN1987A) and one plausible observation (SN1993J) are available.
Neither matched theoretical predictions and in this Letter we report limits on
a third progenitor (SN1999gi). The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged the site
of the TypeII-P supernova SN1999gi with the WFPC2 in two filters (F606W and
F300W) prior to explosion. The distance to the host galaxy (NGC3184) of 7.9Mpc
means that the most luminous, massive stars are resolved as single objects in
the archive images. The supernova occurred in a resolved, young OB association
2.3kpc from the centre of NGC3184 with an association age of about 4Myrs.
Follow-up images of SN1999gi with WFPC2 taken 14 months after discovery
determine the precise position of the SN on the pre-explosion frames. An upper
limit of the absolute magnitude of the progenitor is estimated (M_v >= -5.1).
By comparison with stellar evolutionary tracks this can be interpreted as a
stellar mass, and we determine an upper mass limit of 9(+3/-2)M_solar. We
discuss the possibility of determining the masses or mass limits for numerous
nearby core-collapse supernovae using the HST archive enhanced by our current
SNAP programme.Comment: To appear in ApJ Letters, 16 pages, 3 figure
Evidence for tidal interaction and merger as the origin of galaxy morphology evolution in compact groups
We present the results of a morphological study based on NIR images of 25
galaxies, with different levels of nuclear activity, in 8 Compact Groups of
Galaxies (CGs). We perform independently two different analysis: a isophotal
study and a study of morphological asymmetries. The results yielded by the two
analysis are highly consistent. For the first time, it is possible to show that
deviations from pure ellipses are produced by inhomogeneous stellar mass
distributions related to galaxy interactions and mergers. We find evidence of
mass asymmetries in 74% of the galaxies in our sample. In 59% of these cases,
the asymmetries come in pairs, and are consistent with tidal effects produced
by the proximity of companion galaxies. The symmetric galaxies are generally
small in size or mass, inactive, and have an early-type morphology. In 20% of
the galaxies we find evidence for cannibalism. In 36% of the early-type
galaxies the color gradient is positive (blue nucleus) or flat. Summing up
these results, as much as 52% of the galaxies in our sample could show evidence
of an on going or past mergers. Our observations suggest that galaxies in CGs
merge more frequently under ``dry'' conditions. The high frequency of
interacting and merging galaxies observed in our study is consistent with the
bias of our sample towards CGs of type B, which represents the most active
phase in the evolution of the groups. In these groups we also find a strong
correlation between asymmetries and nuclear activity in early-type galaxies.
This correlation allows us to identify tidal interactions and mergers as the
cause of galaxy morphology transformation in CGs.[abridge]Comment: 64 pages, 35 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
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