ANIMALS' SCIENTIFIC NAMES
Electrophorus electricus:
This river dweller
an electric eel
After Rome burned, Nero shifted the blame from himself to this sect, making sport of them in the circus
Christians
There's no de"Nile": Masse, Massenet & Mattheson all wrote operas about her
Cleopatra
With works like "The Concept of Anxiety", this Dane is said to have pioneered existentialism, though the term itself came later
Kierkegaard
One of this Norse god's main epithets is Vingnir ("the hurler") (4 letters)
T-H-O-R
Bombus:
This insect
a bumblebee
Around 60 A.D. Nero gave his first public performance with this harp-like instrument
a lyre
A Tchaikovsky opera about a card-playing countess
Queen of Spades
Ayn Rand founded this philosophy that says a main purpose in life is one's own happiness; her novel "Atlas Shrugged" expounded on it
Objectivism
"To Anacreon In Heaven" mentions this rollicking Roman god's vine
(7 letters)
B-A-C-C-H-U-S
Dasypus novemcinctus:
The nine-banded this
armadillo
Having had enough of Nero's antics, this august political body decreed his death; he fled
the Senate
In a Goldmark opera, King Solomon's favorite courtier falls for this Biblical queen
Queen of Sheba
Berkeley has been called the first of these--not a starry-eyed hoper for a better world but one who believes reality is in the mind
an idealist
This Egyptian god of death & resurrection was the brother-husband of Isis (6 letters)
O-S-I-R-I-S
Didelphis virginiana: a species of this New World marsupial
an oppossum
At 16, Nero was proclaimed emperor by this military group, the household guard of the emperors
the Praetorians
"The Queen of Cornwall" is based on a play by this "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" author
Thomas Hardy
According to Aristotle, the followers of this 6th century B.C. philosopher believed that "everything is numbers"
Pythagoras
Vulcan is the Roman equivalent of this Greek fire god (10 letters)
H-E-P-H-A-E-S-T-U-S
DAILY DOUBLE
Nasalis larvatus:
This primate
the proboscis monkey
This statesman, tragedian & tutor to Nero was later forced by Nero to commit suicide
Seneca
DAILY DOUBLE
Mozart's sister-in-law was the first to play the Queen of the Night in this "instrumental" opera
The Magic Flute
Kant wrote critiques of "Pure Reason" & of this kind of "Reason", which lays out his case for free will
practical reason
This Hindu god of wisdom & good fortune has the head of an elephant (7 letters)
G-A-N-E-S-H-A