Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk?

The answers are at bottom with links offering explanations.

1. Name the first and last books of the Christian Bible (accurately).
2. Why is Odysseus (of the Odyssey) also known as Ulysses?
3. "Gospel" means what?
4. In the Judgment of Paris, which goddess did Paris choose?
5. What's the English name for Marie Madeleine?
6. Who wanted John the Baptist's head (and got it)?
7. Was there ever a female Pope, either in reality or in legend?
8. Mephistopheles is a 16th century name for whom?
9. Constantinople is now known by what name?
10. Who wrote Paradise Lost?
11. Was Casanova a real person?
12. What did Beethoven and Goya have in common?
13. Eugène Delacroix: French novelist or painter?
14. Who wrote the poem The Raven?
15. The Firebird is associated with the folklore of what country?
16. Name two ballets by Tchaikovsky.
17. Who made the film The Great Dictator?
18. Who directed the film Rear Window?
19. What is the difference between manga and anime?
20. Who was the bad guy in Disney's Beauty & the Beast?

Answers

1. Genesis and Revelation (not Revelations) (Link)
2. Greek name, Roman name (Link)
3. Good news
4. Aphrodite (Venus) (Link)
5. Mary Magdalene (Link)
6. Salome (Link)
7. Yes: Pope Joan (Link)
8. The Devil (Link)
9. Istanbul (Link)
10. Milton (Link)
11. Yes (Link)
12. Deafness (Link, link)
13. Painter (Link)
14. Edgar Allan Poe (Link)
15. Russia (Link)
16. He only did three: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker (Link)
17. Chaplin (Link)
18. Hitchcock (Link)
19. Manga is print; anime is video (Link)
20. Gaston (Link)

These are True/False questions. The answers are at bottom, below the image. The links offer explanations.

1. Helen of Troy and Paris (who eloped with her) were both married (to other people).

2. Odysseus went back to his wife at the end of the Odyssey.

3. The holy relics of Mary Magdalene are in the south of France.

4. Virgo is the Zodiac Sign of the Virgin Mary.

5. The Immaculate Conception refers to Jesus' conception.

6. Peeping Tom became famous for ogling Lady Godiva.

7. There are Zodiac Signs in the great medieval cathedrals of Europe.

8. "Courtesan" is the feminine form of "Courtier."

9. The film The Lion in Winter is about Henry VIII and his wives.

10. The Divine Comedy is another name for Dante's The Inferno.

11. "Icons" is just another word for "images."

12. Chaucer was accused and charged with rape.

13. Jean Cocteau, who directed La Belle et la bête, suffered from facial eczema.

14. The Nutcracker is a Russian story.

15. The poet Tennyson wrote The Lady of Shalott.

16. Virginia Woolf's Orlando was about a woman, not a man.

17. The lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness was a tribute to Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West.

18. The royal Mariinsky Ballet was later renamed the Kirov Ballet.

19. The Rose of Versailles is a famous Japanese manga.

20. The Protoevangelium of James is a famous Japanese manga.

Answers

1. T (link)
2. T (link)
3. T (link)
4. T (link)
5. F (link)
6. T (link)
7. T (link)
8. T (link)
9. F (link)
10. F (link)
11. T (link)
12. T (link)
13. T (link)
14. F (link)
15. T (link)
16. F (link)
17. F (link)
18. T (link)
19. T (link)
20. F (link)

This is multi choice! The answers are at bottom, below the image. The links offer explanations.

1. What fruit did Saint Augustine use as a metaphor for sex? Apples, pears or peaches?

2. Stella Maris refers to which major religious figure: Venus, Mary Magdalene, Virgin Mary?

3. The Dormition of the Virgin Mary is associated with which of these: the Annunciation, the Ascension or the Assumption?

4. Santiago de Compostela is the famous shrine of: St. James, St Dominic, St. Teresa?

5. In medieval Europe, the Yellow Cross was a mark of dishonor for whom? Cathars, Jews or Moors?

6. Who married a nun: Chaucer, Martin Luther or Goethe?

7. Judecca, the Jewish enclave mentioned in Dante's Inferno, is a suburb of: Florence, Rome, Venice?

8. The Forest of Arden is associated with which Shakespeare play: As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear?

9. A Leap from Kiyomizu: which city - Kyoto, Osaka or Tokyo?

10. Butterflies - who's the famous Russian novelist: Pushkin, Tolstoy or Nabokov?

11. Which American writer wrote Letters from the Earth in the role of Satan? Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Twain

12. Lutheranism's symbol is a rose. What color is it: red, white or yellow?

13. The Legend of Briar Rose evokes which fairytale: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty or Snow White?

14. Which Tchaikovsky ballet changed the lives of Diaghilev, Anna Pavlova and others: The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake?

15. Who wrote the poem Sailing to Byzantium? W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats?

16. Who played Adenoid Hynkel? Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx?

17. The Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil is said to be based on what great 20th century Russian book? The Master & Margarita, Dr. Zhivago, The Gulag Archipelago?

18. Which character from the Odyssey became the heroine of a Miyazaki manga/film: Calypso, Circe, Nausicaa, Penelope?

19. Which English band recorded the song Tales of Brave Ulysses: Cream, Pink Floyd, Traffic?

20. Name the two giants of the arts who died in Vevey-Montreux within 6 months of each other in 1977 out of these 4: Charlie Chaplin, Graham Greene, Audrey Hepburn, Vladimir Nabokov.

Answers:

1. Pears (link)
2. Virgin Mary (link)
3. The Assumption (link)
4. St. James (link)
5. Cathars (link)
6. Martin Luther (link)
7. Venice (link)
8. As You Like It (link)
9. Kyoto (link)
10. Nabokov (link)
11. Twain (link)
12. White (link)
13. Sleeping Beauty (link)
14. Sleeping Beauty (link)
15. Yeats (link)
16. Chaplin (link)
17. Master & Margarita (link)
18. Nausicaa (link)
19. Cream (link)
20. Chaplin, Nabokov (link)

The answers are at bottom, below the image. The links offer explanations.

1. Which Classical Greek figure is an icon of the transgendered community?

2. Did Odysseus have a son called Telegonus, according to the ancient legends?

3. The Quintessence: what was another name for it?

4. The Alchemists' Bible was called what? Clue: a precious jewel.

5. The scallop shell is a traditional religious symbol for what?

6. Blessed Reginald's Dream is associated with which Catholic order of monks?

7. Louis the XIV (the Sun King) and Madame de Maintenon had a "morganatic" marriage. What does this refer to?

8. In Milton's Paradise Lost, Satan commits incest with his daughter, Sin. What's their child's name?

9. The yurodivy means a "Holy Fool" in which country's art, music and literature?

10. Does the Rashomon Gate exist today?

11. Which great German poet became a recluse in a tower for more than 30 years?

12. Picasso's Angel Fernández de Soto: man or woman?

13. The Bronze Horseman is a famous poem by Pushkin set in which city? Kiev, Moscow or St. Petersburg?

14. The great Russian painter of landscapes: Isaak Levitan or Ilya Repin or Viktor Vasnetsov?

15. Who wrote The Seven Lady Godivas: Agatha Christie, Dr. Seuss or Mark Twain?

16. Whose painting did Mark Twain describe as "the foulest, the vilest, the obscenest picture the world possesses"?

17. The famed Takarazuka troupe hail from near which city: Kyoto, Osaka or Tokyo?

18. Mary Westmacott was a pseudonym for which English writer?

19. T.S. Eliot is buried in one of the villages named in The Four Quartets: which one? Burnt Norton, East Coker or Little Gidding?

20. Which flower became the official flower of the United States in 1986?

Answers:

1. Tiresias (link)
2. Yes, with Circe (link)
3. Ether or the Fifth Element (link)
4. The Emerald Tablet (link)
5. Catholic pilgrimage (link)
6. Dominican (link)
7. Marriage between a royal and a "commoner" (link)
8. Death (link)
9. Russia (link)
10. No (link)
11. Hölderlin (link)
12. Man (link)
13. St. Petersburg (link)
14. Levitan (link)
15. Dr. Seuss (link)
16. Titian - his Venus of Urbino (link)
17. Osaka (link)
18. Agatha Christie (link)
19. East Coker (link)
20. Rose (link)

1. Was George Bush the Whore of Babylon?

2. If Venus appears in a masculine sign when you are born, will you be a slut?

3. Who has the greater pleasure from sex: men or women?

4. Is Genesis-Exodus the story of leaving the womb (crossing the "red sea") and journeying into the wide world?

5. Do angels have sex?

6. Was God the creator of Genesis?

7. Is it possible to teach Nabokov's Lolita to college and high school students?

8. Did Nintendo steal Mickey Mouse from Disney?

9. Was the Virgin Mary a virgin?

10. Disney's Beauty & the Beast was a metaphor for AIDS?

11. Did Gaston die at the end of Beauty & the Beast?

12. What, I have to get to 20?

Answers:

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Women according to Tiresias who was both.
4. Yes
5. Yes
6. No, angels were.
7. No, unless you want to be a hypocrite.
8. Yes, he was renamed Mario.
9. No
10. Yes
11. No, cartoons never die.
12. Yes