Posted on 03/10/2017 6:08:43 AM PST by C19fan
Ramses II was known to the Greeks as Ozymandias. Today, that name is most familiar thanks to a sonnet on hubris and the implacable passage of time, by Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley:
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—”Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
That poem is widely believed to have been inspired by a broken statue of Ramses II that is now, like many priceless Egyptian artifacts, in the possession of the British Museum.
So 3,200 years of conquests, war, migrating populations mean nothing? This is not to mention the destruction of many things in Egypt by the early Christians and later by Mohammad and his Disciples.
Sally Hemmings was just an hour ago on this time scale ...
Better hope they don’t find the other ear.
“That statue is massive! I hope they can find all the pieces and put him together again.”...
Sounds like an ancient “Humpty Dumpty”.
Would be interesting to see though.
I know the saying is that a sculptor just takes away whatever is NOT his vision; but I will never understand how something like this is made, especially how they give the impression of muscle underneath skin, in stone. It seems like a supernatural gift to me.
The real surprise is that this was just the little statue attached to the crown of the REAL statue!
It’s down there somewhere!
The statue was almost finished, just a little bit of stone to chip off. The artist grabs his mallet and chisel and ever so careful positions the chisel and gently taps on the chisel.
The stone chip flies off but then statue starts to wobble... then KERPLUNK! it falls over!
The artist runs into the desert to escape the Pharaoh.
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