Two flyers, the first transfixed by opening of Hobbes' Leviathan (8)

I haven't cracked this one yet — but the brilliant team at Times for the Times have:

I’m going to be picky here: Leviathan and Behemoth are distinct creatures, usually interpreted as a whale and a hippo respectively. Here’s William Blake’s gorgeous illustration. The two flyers are a BEE and a MOTH, with the former stuck with the opening letter of Hobbes, who did indeed write a book called Leviathan during the Civil War, regarded as the first treatise on the Social Contract theory of government.