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Ram Dass, Baba, Be Here Now. It's easy to dismiss Be Here Now as the relic of a whacked-out '60s acid tripper. Paging through the center section of the book, with its inch-high print and psychedelic drawings. Then you turn to the first page of the book, and you are suddenly sucked into the story of a Harvard psychiatrist who has reached the pinnacle of success, discovers the mind-expanding powers of acid, and ends up trooping through India with a 23-year-old holy man from Laguna Beach. You see all the trappings of your own life and begin to wonder if India might hold the answers after all. --Brian Bruya

Reeder, Ellen D., Pandora, Women in Classical Greece. This volume has its roots in two important developments that have taken place in the study of Greek civilization over the last two decades. First is the widespread acceptance of a multidisciplinary approach, whereby the traditional methods of Classical scholarship have been enriched by finding from anthropology, psychology, and social history. The second landmark has been the publication of the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, an unprecedented and comprehensive compilation of mythological representations that has at last made it possible to scrutinize and compare the changing visual presentation of myth throughout the Greek and Roman eras. It is most fitting that the exhibition this volume accompanies is being presented in Basel, the international headquarters of the LIMC.

Rehm, Rush, Marriage to Death, The Conflation of Wedding and Funeral Rituals in Greek Tragedy. The link between wedding and death--as found in dramas ranging from Romeo and Juliet to Lorca's Blod Wedding--plays a central role in the action of many Greek tragedies. Female characters such as Kassandra, Antigone, and Helen enact and refer to significant part of wedding and funeral rites, but often in a twisted fashion. Over time the pressure of dramatic events causes the distinctions between weddings and funerals to disappear. In this book, Rush Rehm considers how and why the conflation of the two ceremonies comes to theatrical life in the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophokles, and Euripedes. By focusing on the dramatization of important rituals conducted by women in ancient Athenian society, Rehm offers a new perspective on Greek tragedy and the challenges it posed for its audience.

Richardson, Emeline Hill, The Etruscans, Their Art and Civilization. In The Etruscans Emiline Hill Richardson combines her extensive knowledge of that wealth of artifacts with an appreciation for the land to illuminate this shadowy period of early history. From this study we learn that the Etruscans were a people of real, if limited, genius, not so much inventive as capable of borrowing selectively from the far more creative Greeks and of transforming thier borrowings into a style and for purposes of their own. In turn they influenced the culture and habits of thought of the Romans.

Robinson, Charles Alexander, Jr., Athens, In the Age of Pericles. The challenge of Periclean Athens to the student of civilizations is unmistakable: the city and its empire reached a level of culture and well-being scarcely paralleled in the history of man elsewhere. And like the characters in a Greek tragedy, the city and its leaders and citizens were busy in their time of glory making provision for their own tragic decline. This first volume in The Centers of Civilization Series gives a clear picture of Athenian civilization, its literature, philosophy, and political and judicial writing; its painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and drama; and even the arts of war. Above all, the book suggests to modern readers the supreme importance of decision in all of man's affairs, and the frightful consequences of wrong decision, one it is made.