Hirsch-Luipold, Rainer & Roig Lanzillotta, Lautaro (eds.) (2021). Plutarch’s Religious Landscapes. Leiden & Boston: Brill

status: Published onlin

Templando almas codiciosas en lagos de metal: Una imagen metalúrgica en la visión del más allá de Tespesio (Plutarco, De sera num. 30 567c-d)

Plutarch’s theological dialogue De sera numinis vindicta ends with an eschatological myth narrating the afterlife vision of Thespesius (22-33, 563b-568a), centred on the souls’ “purification” from their earthly vices – obtained by means of punishments – and on the process of their reincarnation. This myth includes symbolic images of metallurgic interest. The most elaborate of these corresponds to the description of the chastisement of the “insatiable” and “greedy” souls, which are cyclically immersed into lakes of gold, lead, and iron, enduring painful transformations in each lake (30, 567c-d). This article focuses on the analysis of the implications and literary genesis of this scene, in the frame of the rest of the myth and of the dialogic part of De sera num., of Plutarch’s ethical and scientific ideas, of his culture, and of the tendencies of his metaphorical and analogical prose (as evidenced by his other works). It begins with an introduction to Plutarch’s religious thought and use of Platonic myths, defending the assumption that these should be treated as non-literal “enigmatic” tales and thus interpreted symbolically. A section is then dedicated to the narrative frame of Thespesius’s vision – the story of the moral conversion of an unscrupulously hedonist and greedy man – and to Plutarch’s symbolic presentation of the stains of vice (26, 565b-d), each associated with a colour, focusing on the stain of “miserliness and greed”. After an overview of the other punishments witnessed by Thespesius, mainly to be interpreted as forms of contrapasso and exhibitions of the souls’ hidden, wicked selves, the analysis of Plutarch’s treatment of greed is completed with an extensive discussion of the scene of the metallic lakes. Previous scholarly treatments of the scene are also discussed, with a focus on those which connected it with alchemy. Considering a recently proposed comparison between Plutarch’s scene and some of the images used by the alchemist Zosimus in his allegorical dreams (MA X, XI, XII Mertens), the hypothesis of their affinity is explored with mainly negative results. However, a further hypothesis is suggested without full endorsement: namely, that the symbols used by Plutarch, like those used by Zosimus, were influenced by the aesthetics of Egyptian and/or Jewish religion in the syncretising environment of 1st-cent. CE Alexandria.El diálogo teológico de Plutarco De sera numinis vindicta termina con un mito escatológico que narra la visión del más allá de Tespesio (22-33, 563b-568a), centrada en la “purificación” de las almas de sus vicios terrenales – obtenido mediante castigos – y en el proceso de su reencarnación. Este mito incluye imágenes simbólicas de interés metalúrgico. La más elaborada de ellas corresponde a la descripción del castigo de las almas “insaciables” y “codiciosas”, que se sumergen cíclicamente en lagos de oro, plomo y hierro, sufriendo dolorosas transformaciones en cada lago (30, 567c-d). Este artículo se centra en el análisis de las implicaciones y génesis literaria de esta escena, en el marco del resto del mito y de la parte dialógica de De sera num., de las ideas éticas y científicas de Plutarco, de su cultura y de las tendencias de su prosa metafórica y analógica (como lo demuestran sus otras obras). Comienza con una introducción al pensamiento religioso de Plutarco y al uso de los mitos platónicos, defendiendo la suposición de que estos deben ser tratados como cuentos “enigmáticos” no literales y, por lo tanto, interpretados simbólicamente. Luego se dedica una sección al marco narrativo de la visión de Tespesio – la historia de la conversión moral de un hombre hedonista y codicioso sin escrúpulos – y a la presentación simbólica de Plutarco de las manchas del vicio (26, 565b-d), cada una asociada a un color, centrándose en la mancha de “la avaricia y la codicia”. Después de una descripción general de los otros castigos presenciados por Tespesio, principalmente interpretables como formas de contrapaso y exhibiciones del yo oculto y malvado de las almas, el análisis del tratamiento de Plutarco de la codicia se completa con una discusión extensa de la escena de los lagos metálicos. También se discuten los tratamientos académicos previos de la escena, con un enfoque en aquellos que la conectaron con la alquimia. A partir de una comparación propuesta recientemente entre la escena de Plutarco y algunas de las imágenes utilizadas por el alquimista Zósimo en sus sueños alegóricos (MA X, XI, XII Mertens), se explora la hipótesis de su afinidad con resultados mayoritariamente negativos. Sin embargo, se sugiere otra hipótesis sin respaldo total: a saber, que los símbolos utilizados por Plutarco, como los utilizados por Zósimo, fueron influenciados por la estética de la religión egipcia y/o judía en el entorno sincretizante de la Alejandría del I siglo d.C

Daemonic ergotropy in continuously-monitored open quantum batteries

The amount of work that can be extracted from a quantum system can be increased by exploiting the information obtained from a measurement performed on a correlated ancillary system. The concept of daemonic ergotropy has been introduced to properly describe and quantify this work extraction enhancement in the quantum regime. We here explore the application of this idea in the context of continuously-monitored open quantum systems, where information is gained by measuring the environment interacting with the energy-storing quantum device. We first show that the corresponding daemonic ergotropy takes values between the ergotropy and the energy of the corresponding unconditional state. The upper bound is achieved by assuming an initial pure state and a perfectly efficient projective measurement on the environment, independently of the kind of measurement performed. On the other hand, if the measurement is inefficient or the initial state is mixed, the daemonic ergotropy is generally dependent on the measurement strategy. This scenario is investigated via a paradigmatic example of an open quantum battery: a two-level atom driven by a classical field and whose spontaneously emitted photons are continuously monitored via either homodyne, heterodyne, or photo-detection.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Charging a quantum battery in a non-Markovian environment: a collisional model approach

We study the effect of non-Markovianity in the charging process of an open-system quantum battery. We employ a collisional model framework, where the environment is described by a discrete set of ancillary systems and memory effects in the dynamics can be introduced by allowing these ancillas to interact. We study in detail the behaviour of the steady-state ergotropy and the impact of the information backflow to the system on the different features characterizing the charging process. Remarkably, we find that there is a maximum value of the ergotropy achievable: this value can be obtained either in the presence of memoryless environment, but only in the large-loss limit, as derived in [D. Farina et al., Phys. Rev. B 99, 035421 (2019)], or in the presence of an environment with memory also beyond the large-loss limit. In general, we show that the presence of an environment with memory allows us to generate steady-state ergotropy near to its maximum value for a much larger region in the parameter space and thus potentially in a shorter time. Relying on the geometrical measure of non-Markovianity, we show that in both the cases of an environment with and without memory the ergotropy maximum is obtained when the non-Markovianity of the dynamics of the battery is zero, possibly as the result of a non-trivial interplay between the memory effects induced by, respectively, the environment and the charger connected to the battery

Hydrothermal Carbonization of Oat in a Lab-Scale Batch Reactor

Biomass as feedstock for renewable energy and biomaterials production is of great importance to tackle energy, economic and environmental issues. Biomass can be processed in several ways depending on its composition, moisture content and availability. Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) is one possible option to deal with the biomass streams. In this study, oat was processed in a lab-scale stirred-batch HTC reactor to evaluate the effect of reaction temperature and residence time on the composition and yield of hydrochar obtained during the process. The results demonstrate that these operating parameters strongly affect the characteristics and the amount of the hydrochar produced. The results indicate that the increasing of the HTC severity conditions produces an enrichment of hydrochar in carbon content up to 72.8%. On the other hand, the hydrochar yield decreases from 0.85 to 0.56 g/g as the severity factor increases from 0.11 to 0.37

Effect of fasting on short-term visual plasticity in adult humans

Brain plasticity and function is impaired in conditions of metabolic dysregulation, such as obesity. Less is known on whether brain function is also affected by transient and physiological metabolic changes, such as the alternation between fasting and fed state. Here we asked whether these changes affect the transient shift of ocular dominance that follows short-term monocular deprivation, a form of homeostatic plasticity. We further asked whether variations in three of the main metabolic and hormonal pathways affected in obesity (glucose metabolism, leptin signalling and fatty acid metabolism) correlate with plasticity changes. We measured the effects of 2 h monocular deprivation in three conditions: post-absorptive state (fasting), after ingestion of a standardised meal and during infusion of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), an incretin physiologically released upon meal ingestion that plays a key role in glucose metabolism.We found that short-term plasticity was less manifest in fasting than in fed state, whereas GLP-1 infusion did not elicit reliable changes compared to fasting. Although we confirmed a positive association between plasticity and supraphysiological GLP-1 levels, achieved by GLP-1 infusion, we found that none of the parameters linked to glucose metabolism could predict the plasticity reduction in the fasting versus fed state. Instead, this was selectively associated with the increase in plasma beta-hydroxybutyrate (B-OH) levels during fasting, which suggests a link between neural function and energy substrates alternative to glucose. These results reveal a previously unexplored link between homeostatic brain plasticity and the physiological changes associated with the daily fast-fed cycle

Polyfunctional Type-1, -2, and -17 CD8+ T Cell Responses to Apoptotic Self-Antigens Correlate with the Chronic Evolution of Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Caspase-dependent cleavage of antigens associated with apoptotic cells plays a prominent role in the generation of CD8+ T cell responses in various infectious diseases. We found that the emergence of a large population of autoreactive CD8+ T effector cells specific for apoptotic T cell-associated self-epitopes exceeds the antiviral responses in patients with acute hepatitis C virus infection. Importantly, they endow mixed polyfunctional type-1, type-2 and type-17 responses and correlate with the chronic progression of infection. This evolution is related to the selection of autoreactive CD8+ T cells with higher T cell receptor avidity, whereas those with lower avidity undergo prompt contraction in patients who clear infection. These findings demonstrate a previously undescribed strict link between the emergence of high frequencies of mixed autoreactive CD8+ T cells producing a broad array of cytokines (IFN-γ, IL-17, IL-4, IL-2…) and the progression toward chronic disease in a human model of acute infection