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Literature Poetry Lit Terms Shakescleare. Download this LitChart! Question about this poem? Ask us. Near them, on the sand, 4 Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, 5 And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 6 Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 7 Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, 8 The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; 9 And on the pedestal, these words appear: 10 My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; 11 Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Round the decay 13 Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare 14 The lone and level sands stretch far away. The inscription given by Shelley in his poem is derived from a description found in Book I, chapter 47 of the book The Historical Library , which was written by the ancient Greek historian Diodoros Sikeliotes lived c.
Here is the text of the passage by Diodoros Sikeliotes in the original Ancient Greek :. Here is an English translation of the passage by C. Oldfather for the Loeb Classical Library :. At its entrance there is a pylon, constructed of variegated stone, two plethra in breadth and forty-five cubits high; passing through this one enters a rectangular peristyle, built of stone, four plethra long on each side; it is supported, in place of pillars, by monolithic figures sixteen cubits high, wrought in the ancient manner as to shape; and the entire ceiling, which is two fathoms wide, consists of a single stone, which is highly decorated with stars on a blue field.
Beyond this peristyle there is yet another entrance and pylon, in every respect like the one mentioned before, save that it is more richly wrought with every manner of relief; beside the entrance are three statues, each of a single block of black stone from Syene, of which one, that is seated, is the largest of any in Egypt, the foot measuring over seven cubits, while the other two at the knees of this, the one on the right and the other on the left, daughter and mother respectively, are smaller than the one first mentioned.
And it is not merely for its size that this work merits approbation, but it is also marvellous by reason of its artistic quality and excellent because of the nature of the stone, since in a block of so great a size there is not a single crack or blemish to be seen. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works.
Ozymandias is not just a made-up name. It is a form of the Greek name of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, who is much more famous today than he was two hundred years ago when Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote his poem about him. He is known today for his extraordinarily long reign and his impressive building projects, including the Great Temple of Abu Simbel. I'm Spencer McDaniel! I am currently a student at Indiana University Bloomington pursuing a double major in classical studies and history.
I am obsessed with the ancient world and I write about it constantly. Click to see full answer. Simply so, where does the name Ozymandias come from? The sonnet paraphrases copies in different words the writing on the base of a statue of Ramesses. The 3,year-old remains lie within the pharaoh's temple, the centrepiece of the vast Ramesseum, a few miles from the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile. Ozymandias: Egyptian Pharaoh who is the subject of the traveler's tale. Who wrote Ozymandias poem?
Percy Bysshe Shelley Horace Smith. When was the Ozymandias statue built? For what purpose did the author include the inscription on the statue? It lets the reader know that Ozymandias was a cruel leader. Is colossal wreck an oxymoron?
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