Final Jeopardy: Mythological Places (7-21-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (7/21/2025) in the category “Mythological Places” was:
A 17th c. English translation of the “Aeneid” rhymes “my soul remains” & “perpetual pains” with this 2-word place
12x champ Scott Riccardi, an engineer from Somerville, NJ, won $312,501. We’re about to find out if Game 13 will be lucky for Scott as he takes on these challengers: Anna Ciamporcero, a stay-at-home mom from Ridgefield, CT; and Jeff Hague, a firefighter from Carmel, IN.
Round 1 Categories: Shakespearean Settings – People Working Out Some Issues – Women – Vegetarian Talk – Hit the Road – Switching Sports
Jeff found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Women” under the $400 clue with 8 clues left after it. He was in second place with $3,400, $1,600 less than Scott’s lead. Jeff bet $2,000 and guessed Donna Karen. That was WRONG.
This fashion house whose name is a female first name has mainly been led by women, like Stella McCartney & now Chemena Kamali show
Scott finished in the lead with $5,400. Jeff was second with $2,200 and Anna was last with $400. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: A Year-O With a Zero in It – Cities in Proximity – Nonfiction – Stand-up Specialists – Lots of Knots – Hey “Eu”!
Scott found the first Daily Double in “A Year-O with a Zero in it” under the $1,200 clue on the 2nd pick of the round. He was in the lead with $5,800, $3,600 more than Jeff in second place. Scott bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.
The war of this started in its alliterative way in 1701 after Charles II had to go & die all childless & stuff show
Scott got the last Daily Double in “Nonfiction” under the $1,600 clue on the 9th pick. He was in the lead with $13,800, $10,000 more than Jeff in second place. Scott bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.
This memoir begins with a relative from Nairobi breaking the news about a fatal car accident show
Scott finished in the lead with a runaway $35,400. Anna was second with $4,800 and Jeff was last with $4,600. All clues were shown.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS ELYSIAN PLAINS?
The lines referred to in the clue come from Book V of English poet, John Dryden’s translation of “The Aeneid”, a Latin epic poem by the Roman poet Virgil.
“But first to Pluto’s palace you shall go,
And seek my shade among the blest below:
For not with impious ghosts my soul remains,
Nor suffers with the damn’d perpetual pains,
But breathes the living air of soft Elysian plains.”
In Greek mythology, the Elysium is where heroes and the pure of heart go after death. It’s more commonly called the Elysian Fields, so we wouldn’t be totally wrong to think it took John Dryden, who was England’s first Poet Laureate, more than 30 seconds to transform “fields” into “plains”.
Jeff drew a blank. He lost his $4,400 and finished with $200.
Anna came up empty, too. She lost $1,800 and finished with $3,000.
Scott got it right. That was wonderful, not just because it was a tough one, but Scott didn’t lose his $15,000 bet (like those other 2 times he bet big). Scott won the game with $50,400 and, just like that, with total winnings of $362,901, he’s more than halfway to $400K. Game 13 sure turned out lucky!
A triple stumper from each round:
HIT THE ROAD ($1000) St. Paul’s conversion to Christianity gave us this idiom that now refers to any kind of turning point
LOTS OF KNOTS ($2000) Decorative symbols of interconnection, Celtic knots appear throughout this manuscript named for an Irish abbey
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “AFRICAN GEOGRAPHY”
The only country in Africa with Spanish as an official language, it lies mostly between 1 & 2 degrees north latitude show
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Hi folks, it is time to make an amendment to Jeopardy questions about people. Giving only the last name is not a complete answer. Demand the first name as well!
How could they not get the $1000 Shakespeare location clue? In that same vein, I think someone never heard of Macbeth being called “the Scottish play”!
I was 1/3 on DD. I missed FJ, despite reading The Aeneid in school (in Latin, at that!), and referring to “le champs” this evening while taking out the dog (in my only defense, that was before the show).
Scott continues to steamroll. My previous statement of him being a “heater” has dissipated somewhat, apparently!
Ouch, another early beatdown by Scott That youngsta is the real deal. Jeff showed some early promise till he hit that unfortunately killer DD. All 3 came up with responses tonight that left me clueless. I wiped out on all 3 DDs and Final. Did know the diving board and the Shakespeare play, although I didn’t quite get the latter out in time.
As usual, it was still another runaway with Scott leaving the other contestants far behind. In fact, Scott had left them very far behind in this game. Well, I went with ‘The Hades’ for FJ. Perhaps it was a bad guess, but it was better than nothing.
Scott also made 50,400 just like in his 2nd game. He is now #13 in the all-time winnings. Only 4 games left this season.
Yeah, I forgot about that. He had $26,400 before FJ! in his second game, and successfully put $24K on the line. Maybe he was a littled spooked by the last 2 times to risk $20K or more, or maybe he’s just happy with $50K if he can get there. Anyway, I’m glad he got FJ!