![]() 12), showing the unequal distribution of wealth in a city. As opposed to a primary characteristic (such as basic infrastructure), the existence of secondary characteristics, such as monuments ‘not only distinguish each known city from any village, but also symbolize the concentration of the social surplus’ (Childe, 1950, p. ![]() By using the word ‘antique’, Shelley is trying to say that although old, what was found in the city of Thebes, present day Luxor, was also of value.Īccording to Gordon Childe’s Urban Revolution one can classify the statue of Ramesses II as a ‘secondary characteristic’ of the city. There is a slight reference to a Eurocentric view of Ancient Egypt in the beginning of the poem where it states, ‘I met a traveller from an antique land’ before generally describing the colossal wreck of the statue in question. 106) and Tignor in his book Egypt: A short History informs us that the Ramesseum was the first object visitors saw once they crossed the Nile (Tignor, 2011, p. MacGregor in his book A History of the World in 100 Objects compares the temple in size to that of four football pitches (MacGregor, 2010, p. It contained four colossal statues of himself, a temple, a palace and many other treasures (MacGregor, 2011, p. This statue was one of two, which originally stood at one of the entrances of the Ramesseum, Ramesses II’s mortuary temple, which was constructed to celebrate his many achievements. 105) during the New Kingdom era which began roughly from 1552 BCE (Metz, 1990, p. The statue which resides in the land Shelley describes, is the depiction of Rameses II (commonly referred to in Greek as Ozymandias), who had ruled over Thebes from 1279 to 1213 BCE (MacGregor, 2011, p. Contextualising ‘Ozymandias’ and the Eurocentric Viewpoint Although Shelley’s work is open to criticism of historical and geographical inaccuracies, the poem nevertheless gives us a unique tool for the analysis for Egypt’s urban past and the impacts on the study of urban histories in an era after colonial pillaging. Finally, it opens up for the reader of history questions about urban planning and the occupations of city dwellers at this time. It further describes the secondary characteristics of the city, while also portraying how hegemonic world powers dismantled the city and acquired the artefacts for themselves due to fascination a fascination shared by Shelley, which prompted the writing of ‘Ozymandias’ in the first place. ‘Ozymandias’ examines the issue of the ‘acquisition’ of ancient Egyptian artefacts by external imperial and colonial powers, which dismantled prime characteristics of the ancient city. However, one could say that it tells us more than that and also gives us a new avenue of gaining historical insight: through the reading of literary works such as this sonnet. It describes the pieces of the wrecked sculpture in the barren lands of Egypt. Percy Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’, published in 1818 in The Examiner under the pen name Glirastes, is a poem about the fascination of a Pharaoh’s statue centred in a desert landscape. The statue seems to be saying to any ‘Mighty’ rival emperor who might be tempted to try and invade Rameses’ kingdom: look around you at everything I, Rameses II, have built, and despair of ever vanquishing me or the empire I have made! The grandeur of his kingdom will never be matched, and they should despair of ever trying to equal it.The Younger Memnon, statue of Ramesses II, British Museum, EA19. The declaration ‘Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ is supposed to be triumphant, and originally was: when the statue was first built, people gazing at it were meant to look at the empire built by Rameses and be cowed into submission by its vastness and power. Who was Ozymandias? Ozymandias was the Greek name for Rameses II, an Egyptian ruler whose empire crumbled to dust long ago. They are inscribed rather than spoken, but in a sense, the words ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ give us a third speaker within this short poem. The inscription ‘Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ is ironic, for reasons which are worth analysing.
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