Final Jeopardy: Mythology (2-16-15)
The Final Jeopardy question (2/16/2015), in the category “Mythology” was:
The ancient Greeks derived the name of this evil sorceress from a verb meaning “to plot.”
Back to the regular games and our current champ Karen Ash is back today. Karen has a 2-day total of $49,600. Her opponents today are: Susan Mackay Smith, from Boulder, CO; and Andy Axel, from Iowa City, IA.
Round 1: Andy found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Double Letter Science” under the $400 clue. He was in the lead with $4,600, $1,400 ahead of Karen in second place. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.
In birds it’s also known as the gastric mill. show
Andy finished in the lead with $7,600. Karen was second with $5,800 and Susan was last with $3,200.
Round 2: Andy found the first Daily Double in “Bram Stoker Award Winners” under the $1,600 clue. He was in the lead with $9,600, $3,800 ahead of Karen in second place. He bet $3,000 and but did not know so he was WRONG.
2012 screenplay: “The Cabin in the woods” by Drew Goddard & this “Buffy” biggie. show
Susan found the last Daily Double in “Aviation” under the $1,600 clue. In third place with $4,000, she had $6,600 less than Karen’s lead. She bet $2,000 and she was RIGHT.
In 1910, a Wright airplane flew several bolts of silk from this Ohio City to Columbus, possibly the 1st air freight shipment. show
Andy finished in the lead with $11,400. Karen was next with $10,600 and Susan was in third place with $4,800.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
The Online Etymology Dictionary’s entry for Medea says: “famous sorceress, daughter of the king of Colchis, from Latin Medea, from Greek Medeia, literally ‘cunning,’ related to medos “counsel, plan, device, cunning,” medein “to protect, rule over,’…” Many name meaning sites use “plan, ponder” for the meaning, and add “possibly cunning.” Wikipedia’s entry appears to come from Behind the Name. Using “plot” for the meaning serves to combine the two qualities, signifying the premeditated nature of the mythical Medea’s atrocities.
The image shown on this Dover-Thrift edition of Euripedes’ play, Medea, is the 19th century painting of Medea by Frederick Sandys. See this list for more works based on the myth.
Susan wrote down Hecuba. She bet and lost everything.
Karen thought it was Circe. She also bet and lost it all.
Andy came up with Hecate. He bet $9,801 so he won the game with the $1,599 he had left.
Andy Axel is a poet. During the chat, Alex asked him if that occupation was lucrative these days. Andy said it would be if he won today and he did, albeit not as much as he may have envisioned.
Various online sites give different meanings for the names the players came up with. The 1831 Bibliotheca Classical has nothing definite on Hecuba and Hecate and attributes Circe to the Greek word for circle.
2 years ago:: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “The New 7 Wonders of the World”
On the new list chosen in 2007, this wonder designed by Heitor da Silva Costa is the only statue. show
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Andy is so cute!
and btw, the 7 wonders: a portuguese name> a statue>….
There have been a few other one day winning totals less than $2000 since 2002 I think.
I think you are correct. It’s so rare until it just looked weird and caught my attention when the scores went up at the end of the game.
@VJ “becircen” is the german verb when somebody tries to “wrap someone around his/her finger”, get enchanted with him/her, fall in love etc…. that’s how circe came to mind first. but you were right.
and so was i with ZERO. karen was closest with circe, medea’s aunt.
j saved a lot of money, but w/o REALLY being very,very familiar with greek mythology there was no way for a single solve.
Karen would still be the champion if she had employed solid game theory. In a classic example of when the person in second SHOULD NOT BET EVERYTHING, her range should have been defined as enough to cover the double by Susan, and cover a zero bet by the leader. Clearly, any bet in the range 801-999 would suffice.
unless of course, the leader WOULD wager something and be right. but given the category i agree with you. i said in the spoiler talk today that nobody would get this. if one had stayed put, s/he would have won. and with more than just 1.599..
tough clue to start the week.
@Eric, I agree with you. Can’t wait to see what Keith says on Final Wager.
This must be a Jeopardy record. The champion ended up with less money than the runner up who got $2000. Don’t recall ever seeing this before on Jeopardy.
Keith Williams posted here on the last week of January and linked 2 games on the J!Archive where both contestants won less than $300. I believe it was under the recap for which the FJ answer was “San Francisco” (don’t recall the exact category title – weird, huh?).
it was U.S. Cities, Cece. LOL!
(LINK)
Yes! What else would San Francisco be? LOL!
BTW, thanks VJ. Question: who got the $2,000?
Karen
Cece, thanks.