The monumental work of Erwin R. Goodenough on Jewish Symbols opens new historical vistas. Our knowledge of Judaism and its religious attitudes in the Roman Empire was derived from written, mainly Talmudic, sources. For the first time Goodenough assembles, presents and interprets an imposing array of figured or otherwise decorated monuments which throw an unexpected light on the mentality of the period known as that of the Talmud. Who could imagine that at Beth She'arim, a famous seat of Talmudic learning, contemporaries of R. Jehudah, the compiler of the Mishna, were buried in a chamber decorated by a carved human figure surmounted by a menorah, or in a relief sarcophagus showing Leda and the swan, the mythological episode which was regarded as extremely indecent by a contemporary Christian writer?