The current effort addresses two issues important to the research conducted by the Thermal Radiation Group at Virginia Tech. The first research topic involves the development of a method which can properly model the diffraction of radiation as it enters an instrument aperture. The second topic involves the study of a potential next-generation space-borne radiometric instrument concept. Presented are multiple modeling efforts to describe the diffraction of monochromatic radiant energy passing through an aperture for use in the Monte-Carlo ray-trace environment. Described in detail is a deterministic model based upon Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and the particle theory of light. This method is applicable to either Fraunhofer or Fresnel diffraction situations, but is incapable of predicting the secondary fringes in a diffraction pattern. Also presented is a second diffraction model, based on the Huygens-Fresnel principle with a correcting obliquity factor. This model is useful for predicting Fraunhofer diffraction, and can predict the secondary fringes because it keeps track of phase. NASA is planning for the next-generation of instruments to follow CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System), an instrument which measures components of the Earth's radiant energy budget in three spectral bands. A potential next-generation concept involves modification of the current CERES instrument to measure in a larger number of wavelength bands. This increased spectral partitioning would be achieved by the addition of filters and detectors to the current CERES geometry. The capacity of the CERES telescope to serve for this purpose is addressed in this thesis. / Master of Science

Implications surrounding body ownership prove to be an enduring struggle from their prevalence in ancient literary sources through more modern, contemporary works. I analyze the notions of body ownership and its lack thereof set forth in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Homeric “Hymn to Demeter” regarding the myth of Persephone. Then, I consider larger meanings through analysis of the following contemporary works, approached in terms of the narrators: Rita Dove’s Mother Love, Louise Glück’s Averno, A.E. Stallings’s “Hades Welcomes His Bride” and “Persephone Writes a Letter to Her Mother,” and D.M. Thomas’s “Pomegranate.” The complexities within the myth itself amplify the complications in the contemporary interpretations of the myth. There is a range of differing levels of accepting sentiments in the contemporary works about the idea that no one ever has complete ownership or control over his own body. Comparing the different lenses through with the contemporary authors (and ancient authors!) chose to incorporate the myth of Persephone into their works reveals overarching themes, enlightening the reader about the nuances of the arguably most famous abduction in history.

Persephone’s myth is unique, as it was the central narrative of one of the most prominent ancient mystery religions, and remains one of the few (certainly the most prominent) ancient Greek myths to focus on the relationship of a mother and her daughter. This unique focus must have offered her worshippers something important that they perhaps could not find elsewhere, especially as a complex and elaborate cult grew around it, transforming the divine allegory of the changing seasons or the storage of the grain beneath the earth, into a narrative offering hope for a better place in the afterlife. To understand the appeal of this myth, two aspects of her worship and mythic significance require study: the expectations of her worshippers for their own lives, to which the goddess may have been seen as a forerunner; and the mythic frameworks operating which would characterise the goddess for her worshippers. The myth, as described in The Hymn to Demeter, is initially interpreted for its literary meaning, and then set within its cultural milieu to uncover what meaning it may have had for Persephone’s worshippers, particularly in terms of marriage and death, which form the initial motivating action of the myth. From this socio-anthropological study we turn to the mythic patterns and motifs the story offers, particularly the figure of the goddess of the Underworld (primarily in the influential Mesopotamian literature), and the Dying-Rising God figure (similarly derived from the Near East). These figures, when compared to the Greek goddess, may both reveal her unique appeal, and highlight the common attractions that lie in the figures generally. By this two-part investigation, on the particular culture’s expectations and the general mythic framework she exists in, Persephone’s meaning in her native land may be uncovered and understood.

Quando pensamos no Hades, o mundo dos mortos grego, duas divindades femininas logo nos vêm à mente: Perséfone, sua rainha, e Hécate, deusa da magia. Essas são as imagens que temos, contemporaneamente, dessas deusas, sobretudo por influência romana e, posteriormente, shakespeariana. No entanto, podemos afirmar que essas foram sempre as imagens associadas às duas deusas? O objetivo deste trabalho foi, portanto, investigar a representação das deusas Perséfone e Hécate na poesia do período arcaico (VIII-V a.C.) com maior enfoque no Hino Homérico a Deméter e na poesia de Hesíodo, mas também passando por outros autores e gêneros poéticos, bem como traçando paralelos com as esferas iconográfica e cultual , de forma a resgatar a figuração primordial e a importância dessas divindades no mundo grego arcaico. / When we think about the Hades, the Greek underworld, two female divinities soon come to mind: Persephone, its queen, and Hecate, goddess of magic. These are the images we associate with them, contemporarily, especially due to Roman, but later, to Shakespearian influence. However, can we affirm with certainty that these were always the images associated with the two goddesses? The aim of this study was, therefore, to investigate the representation of Persephone and Hecate in the poetry of the archaic period (8th-5th century B.C.) focusing more closely on the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and on Hesiods poetry, but also going through other poets and genres, as well as establishing paralells with the iconographic and cultual spheres , so as to rediscover the primordial figuration and importance of these goddesses in the archaic Greek world.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / On title page: Master of Philosophy (Ancient Cultures). Bibliography.

Le travail porte sur les aspects du mythe de Korè-Perséphone se référant à l’Attique, son culte et sa présence en dehors de la religion civique. La première partie examine le mythe de Korè et les étymologies du nom proposées par les Anciens. La deuxième partie porte sur les fêtes et les cultes d’Attique où Korè apparaît, seule ou aux côtés de Déméter : les Thesmophories, les Mystères d’Éleusis, les Petits Mystères d’Agra, les Skira et les Halôa, les cultes thesmophoriques et éleusiniens locaux, les sanctuaires et les emplacements sacrés relatifs à la déesse. La troisième partie est consacrée à la place de la déesse dans la magie, dans les associations religieuses dionysiaques ou orphiques (collège des Iobacchoi), et au manuel d’onirocritique d’Artémidore. La quatrième partie contient le corpus des textes cités au cours du travail : les sources littéraires, les documents épigraphiques et papyrologiques. Un appendice est consacré à l’image de Korè-Perséphone dans l’oeuvre de Porphyre. / The study focuses on aspects of the myth of Kore-Persephone referring to Attica, its worship and its presence outside the civic religion. The first part focuses on the myth of Kore and different suggestions for the etymologies of names proposed by the Elders. The second part focuses on festivals and cults of Attica where Kore appears alone or alongside of Demeter: the Thesmophoria, the Eleusinian Mysteries, the lesser mysteries of Agra, Skira and Haloa, local Thesmophoria and Eleusinian worships, shrines and sacred sites related to the goddess. The third part is dedicated to the place of the goddess in magic, in Dionysian or Orphic religious connections (Society of Iobacchoi) and Artemidorus’ treatise on oneirocriticism. The fourth part contains the corpus of texts referenced in the work (literary sources, inscriptions and papyrus). An appendix is devoted to the image of Kore-Persephone in the works of Porphyry.

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Thesis (MPhil (Ancient Studies)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / This thesis deals with the connection between mythology and psychagogy, and a structured way of reading and using myth for personal development is suggested. The myth of Demeter and Persephone is used for this purpose, and the text of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter is analysed as the basic (but not exclusive) text. In the modern world the psychagogic component relies on the work of Jung, which is seen as the most appropriate template available. His concept of the archetype is particularly useful, and the archetype of the mother goddess is analysed as a representation of the personal and spiritual development of modern women.

Thesis (MPhil (Ancient Studies)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / The question that this thesis aims to examine is how the motifs of the myth of Demeter and Persephone have been perpetuated in three modern works of fiction, which are Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood by Meredith Ann Pierce, Chocolat by Joanne Harris and House of Women by Lynn Freed. It is the aim of this work to substantiate that the issues that the ancient myth of Demeter and Persephone highlights, are still of value in this modern world and that the same human issues that women had to come to terms with then, continue to be relevant today. Briefly, the myth of Demeter and Persephone is about Demeter, the Olympian goddess of agricultural fertility, whose daughter Persephone is abducted by Hades, the god of the Underworld. The myth tells of Demeter’s grief at the loss of Persephone, and her desperate search for her daughter. Due to her grief, she stops all plants from growing which could be fatal to the mortals, and would have repercussions for the immortals that they serve. Demeter and Persephone are eventually reunited and the earth flourishes with growth once more. However for one-third of the year Persephone must descend to the Underworld to be at the side of Hades, at which time it is winter and plants do not grow. Then for two-thirds of the year she ascends to be with her mother, Demeter, and plants blossom and ripen, and it is the time of spring and summer. The impact of myth is not dead.

Chez la drosophile, l’activation du récepteur Toll menant à une réponse antimicrobienne peut se faire par deux voies différentes. Ces deux voies sont activées soit par des récepteurs dédiés, les Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs) reconnaissant des motifs moléculaires microbiens, soit par la coupure d’une molécule circulante appelée Perséphone par des protéases microbiennes extrêmement diverses sécrétées pendant une infection. Cependant, le mécanisme par lequel Perséphone est activée demeurait ambigu. Nous avons identifié une région unique dans Perséphone fonctionnant comme un appât pour les protéases exogènes indépendamment de leur origine, type ou spécificité. Une coupure dans cette région constitue la première étape d’une activation séquentielle de Perséphone ; elle permet de recruter la cathepsine circulante 26-29-p, qui va générer la forme active de Perséphone.Ces travaux montrent comment un récepteur de l’immunité innée, Perséphone, peut être activé par un signal de danger, en l’occurrence des enzymes microbiennes, et non par la détection de motifs moléculaires qui peuvent être présents dans la flore microbienne hébergée par les animaux. / In Drosophila, the antimicrobial response against infections can be triggered by two different extracellular mechanisms that both lead to the activation of the Toll receptor. These two mechanisms are activated either by the recognition of specific microbial determinants by Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs), or by the cleavage of the circulating serine protease Persephone by a wide range of microbial proteases secreted during infections. However, the molecular mechanism underlying Persephone activation remained ambiguous. We identified a unique region in Persephone pro-domain that functions as a bait for exogenous proteases independently of their origin, type or specificity. Cleavage of Persephone in this bait region constitutes the first step of a sequential activation and licenses the subsequent maturation of Persephone to the endogenous circulating cysteine cathepsin 26-29-p. Our data establish Persephone itself as an immune receptor able to sense a broad spectrum of microbes through the recognition of danger signals rather than molecular patterns.