224: Ozymandias (or, Shadow of the Colossus)

Divine intermediaries. Ramesses II commissioned many statues, some of which are among the largest ever quarried. From the halls of the Grand Egyptian Museum, to the bedrock of Aswan, we follow the King's development of a remarkable project. Colossal statues of the king, bearing distinct names and even their own priests, provided Ramesses' subjects with new intercessors between their world and the gods... Select Bibliography: Amer, A. A. M. A. (1996). Some Observations on the Statue-Cults of Ramesses II. Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, 26, 1--7. Connor, S. (2017). La statua di Ramesses II. Connor, S. (2022). Ancient Egyptian Statues: Their Many Lives and Deaths. American University in Cairo Press. Habachi, L. (1969). Features of the Deification of Ramesses II. Augustin. Leblanc, C. (2019). Ramsès II et le Ramesseum: De la splendeur au déclin d’un temple de millions d’années. L’Harmattan. Price, C. (2011). Ramesses, “King of Kings”: On the Context and Interpretation of Royal Colossi. In M. Collier & S. Snape (Eds.), Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen (pp. 403--411). Rutherford. Price, C. (2024). A Stela of Mery-Re, Chief of Works of (the Cult Colossus) Re-of-Rulers. In A. Cooke, S. Thomas, P. Wilson, N. Nielsen, & G. Godenho (Eds.), Landscapes: Studies in Honour of Steven Snape (pp. 247--254). Abercromby Press. Sourouzian, H. (1988). Standing Royal Colossi of the Middle Kingdom Reused by Ramesses II. Mitteilungen Des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo, 44, 229--254. Thomas, S. (2022). Ramesses Loved by Ptah: The Complete History of a Colossal Royal Statue. The American University in Cairo Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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224: Ozymandias (or, Shadow of the Colossus) is an episode from The History of Egypt Podcast by Dominic Perry.

This episode is 36:50 long.

This episode was published on Dec 12, 2025.

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