Useful Notes / Ramses II

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The Horus, the Strong Bull, Beloved of Ma'at; the one protected by the Two Ladies, the Protector of Egypt who curbs foreign lands; the Golden Horus, the Rich in Years and Great in Victories; the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Userma'atre` Setepenre`; the Son of Re` Ramesses Meryamun.<sup>note</sup> "Ma'at"=truth, justice, righteousness, the Way; "Userma'atre`"="Powerful is the ma'at of Ra"; "Setepenre`"="The Chosen of Ra"; "Ramesses"="Ra`messu"="Born of Ra"; "Meryamun"="Beloved of Amun". Also known as Ramses the Great, Ramses II (1303 BC-1213 BC, r. 1279 BC-1213 BC) was the third king of the Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt.

He was believed to have been born c. 1303 BC, most likely in Avaris, a town located in the Nile Delta, to a prominent military family (albeit still commoners, which probably helps explain his constant insistence on promoting his own legitimacy), during the reign of Horemheb.^note  Avaris was actually the Hyskos seat of power during their period of rule in Egypt, and had a promiment Caananite population, suggesting that the Ramesside line might've had Caananite heritage.  It was also heavily associated with the god Set (the Hyskos adopted Set as their patron, due to his similarities to the Caananite god, Ba'al), of whom the Ramessides were devout worshippers of.  His grandfather (and namesake), Paramessu, was a high ranking officer in the Egyptian army, who served under Horemheb during the latter's time as the Egyptian army's supreme commander, and later as Horemheb's own supreme commander and vizier when he became pharaoh.  When Ramses was either eight or ten, Horemheb died without issue, willing the throne to Paramessu, who ruled as Ramses I, albeit for only two years (he was likely already in his 50s when he took the throne, which was old for the time).  This left the throne to Ramses' father, Seti I.  At some point during Seti's reign, likely when Ramses was 14, he formally named his son as the crown prince and co-regent, and appointed him to various nominal positions across the kingdom.^note  Whether or not Ramses had any political power is hard to say, but the real goal of Seti was most likely to set Ramses up for success by putting him in a public position of authority early on, to smooth the inevitable transition to power.

Much like his own father's, Seti's own reign would be relatively brief, lasting between nine and eleven years in total.  Ramses' ascension is generally dated as 1279 BC, when he was in his early to mid twenties.  Early in his reign (possibly as early as the first decade, which would suggest he may have been planning this since before he ascended), Ramses ordered the construction of a completely new capital city in the Nile Delta, in the same location as his family's hometown, Avaris, giving it the not so modest name of Pi-Ramses. While symbolism was likely in play as well (sentiment may have played a factor too, seeing as Ramses grew up in that area), this was just as likely motivated by military interests; its location in the delta made it defensible, and ensured any attacking enemy army would have to push its way through them first.

During his reign, particularly in the first couple decades, Ramses would devote considerable attention to military ventures, particularly against the Hittites, probably trying to pick up with them where his father left off. ^note  At the time, Egypt's primary foreign concerns were with Nubia to the South (due to its valuable gold mines), and Canaan to the North. While Nubia, known then as "Kush", was rarely a major threat to their interests (with a few major exceptions), and normally easy to control, Canaan was a constant thorn in Egypt's side. After the Hyskos were defeated, the various city states that dotted the region weren't a major threat in of themselves, but their geographic position as the only land route into Egypt from the East meant the Egyptians had a vested interest in controlling it. For the most part they were able to do so, but the Canaanite monarchies (particularly the wealthier ones like Ugarit, Kadesh, and Ascalon) were notorious wheeler dealers, who would switch allegiances the moment it was convenient (in their defense, they were probably well aware that they could never challenge the much wealthier and more powerful empires around them, and figured this was their best chance for survival), meaning Egypt was constantly having to assert its authority over them, and put down rebellions. This would culminate at the Battle of Kadesh in his fifth regnal year, where his attempt to retake the eponymous city would result in a massive clash that would go onto be come the first battle in antiquity that would have detailed accounts of tactics, army size, and strategy, not to mention possibly the largest single chariot battle in history (there are estimations of up to 6000 chariots deployed between the two sides).  Due to false intelligence being planted in his army, Ramses would get ambushed outside of the city by the Hittites, and only just managed to avoid getting captured or killed himself.  The battle would ultimately end up as a stalemate, and while not a total wash for the Egyptians, it was a strategic failure, as they were not able to secure Syria (then called Amurru) for Egypt, and eventually had to accept Hittite hegemony in the region.  This famously did not stop Ramses from reporting it as a great victory, in no small part due to his own personal bravery; this account of the battle is considered by Egyptologists to be one of the first "epic poems" in history. ^note  Since the Battle of Kadesh is one of the most well attested battles in antiquity, most Egyptologists know that Ramses' personal account is wildly inaccurate, if not downright indulgent (he made lofty claims that his bodyguards deserted him, and that he personally killed thousands of Hittite soldiers). He had set out from Kadesh with four army divisions, named for the gods (Amun, Ra, Set, and Ptah), each 5000 strong, when they captured a group of people who claimed to be Hittite deserters, and claimed that the Hittite army was far away, and that Kadesh was undefended. Unaware that these "deserters" were actually Hittite spies planted specifically to spread false information, the Egyptians pushed North, only to learn that the whole thing was a trap. The Hittites ambushed and smashed the Ra division, and attacked the Amun division (where Ramses was), which devolved into a brutal melee. Ramses probably would've been captured or killed, if not for luck very much going in his way at the eleventh hour; first, the Hittite king, Muwatalli, failed to commit the Hittite infantry, allowing the Hittite attack to bog down, followed by the Set division arriving to Ramses' aid, swinging the battle in Egypt's favor. The Hittites were forced to fall back to Kadesh, but the Egyptians were forced to fall back South, not in any condition to besiege the city. Muwatalli would later send an overture to Ramses, and the two armies mutually disengaged. This wouldn't be the last campaign Ramses would fight, as he had to put down rebellious Canaanite vassals emboldened by the Egyptian losses at Kadesh (and probably goaded by the Hittites), in which he would have considerably more success. Ramses would later make peace with the Hittites in response to the rising power of Assyria, in what would come to be the first formal treaty between two nations in recorded history, that included specific provisions and obligations.

On the domestic front, Ramses would become best known for his massive building projects across Egypt, not only renovating and expanding old temples (as Egyptian kings were customarily expected to do), but building multiple new ones.  At least some of them may have already been pre-existing ones, that he simply stamped his cartouche on, and claimed as his own.^note  He was far from the first, or last pharaoh to do this, a fact that Ramses seemed well aware of, and so carefully designed his monuments to make removing his name a lot more difficult, having the steles carved much deeper and larger than average.  The zenith of his efforts would be the construction of his temple complex in Abu-Simbel, a gargantuan monument to himself carved into a cliffside that was supposed to elevate to literal godhood.  This is represented by a statue of himself being put in a line sitting beside the gods Ptah, Amun, and Ra-Horakthy ^note  The idea of pharaohs being divine incarnations certainly wasn't new, let alone them being deified after death, but for a living pharaoh to put himself in the direct company of the gods as an equal was something else entirely..  Ironically, if this temple was supposed to represent his apotheosis, it was dealt a pretty severe blow when an earthquake hit Nubia not long after construction was complete, and one of the four colossi that lookout from the cliffside broke apart, where it still sits to this day ^note  Relatively speaking, since the original site of the temple is now underwater, having been swamped when the Aswan Dam was built, and it now sits further up the cliffside, having had to be disassembled, and put back together to prevent it from being lost..

Ramses would reign for an astounding sixty-six years, making him the 8th longest reigning monarch in human history, and he would live to the age of 90, celebrating an unprecedented thirteen or fourteen Sed festivals ^note  These were essentially jubilees, which would be first held after a pharaoh's thirtieth year on the throne (meaning celebrating just one as a major accomplishment), and then would be held every three years after.  In a time when being in ones early fifties was considered "elderly", this meant two whole generations were born, and died all while Ramses sat the throne.  Unfortunately, this included a number of his own children, of whom he would outlive many.  Evidence suggests that Ramses was very likely feeling his age by the time he died; at his time of death, he was suffering from severe dental problems, arthritis that required him to walk with a cane, hardening of the arteries, and heart disease.  When he did inevitably die in 1213 BC (likely to the horror of the Egyptian people, who were probably starting to ponder if he really was a god), he was succeeded by Merneptah, his thirteenth son. His dynasty would die out only 25 years later, with Ramses himself having ruled for more almost two-thirds of its entire period.

After the chaos of the Amarna Period, which saw Egyptian society and culture be thoroughly upheaved by Akhenaten, and its position on the international stage eroded ^note  Akhenaten, through his famed Armana Letters, is indicated to have been highly pacifistic, to the point of being rather insular and isolationist, which caused Egyptian interests abroad to erode as other powers, especially the Hittites, asserted themselves., Ramses' reign was likely viewed by the Egyptian population as a welcome return to form, as Egyptian culture flourished, the kingdom prospered, and it reasserted itself as one of the dominant powers internationally. In hindsight, Ramses reign is considered the swan song of the Egyptian New Kingdom, as after his reign, it never achieved that level of power again.  Not helping is that his death roughly coincided with the start of the Late Bronze Age collapse, a nigh-apocalyptic series of events that lead to a chain reaction that effectively devastated the interconnected world of the Eastern Mediterranean world of that age. Egypt was the only major state of that era to ultimately survive the collapse (the Hittite, Minoan, and Canaanite kingdoms all fell), but was greatly weakened, and never fully recovered. From that perspective, Ramses was reign was the last time Egypt stood as the preeminent power of the age, similar to how a Roman of the late Empire might view the reign of Marcus Aurelius, or a Briton in the late the late 1930s might remember the reign of Edward VII.  He is thus popularly considered the greatest, and most famous of all the Ancient Egyptian pharaohs, and not without reason.^note  He outdid Amenhotep III in terms of construction projects, and while not as successful a conqueror as Thutmose III, he did maintain Egyptian supremacy in Canaan and Nubia.

To modern Egyptians, he's a national hero - sort of the equivalent of King Arthur, part real man and part legend - whereas to the rest of the world he is best known for his portrayal as the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Historians have argued that Biblical chronology indicates the events of the Exodus would have occurred during the Eighteenth Dynasty, making it likelier for one of the pharaohs from that period (the era with Thutmose II, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, and Tutankhamun) to be the ruler in the Exodus. Egyptian rule in Canaan continued throughout the Nineteenth Dynasty and through Rameses' entire reign, making a founding of Israel unlikely at that time. While the Bible does attest to the the Hebrews laboring to build the cities of Pithom and Pi Ramses, there is no archaeological evidence of foreign slave labor being used in the construction of the city (it should also be noted that the Egyptian monuments were built by paid workers instead of slaves), meaning even this is in doubt.

His mummy was discovered in 1881, and tells quite a bit about the man's appearance.  Ramses was above average in height for the age (the mummy is about 5 feet 7 inches, but that's in its desiccated state, so he was likely taller in life), with strong features, and an aquiline nose.  His skin was also fairer than the average Egyptian, and he had distinctively red hair, qualities that probably would've made him stand out in some parts of Egypt at the time, and the latter of which would have strengthened associations with the god Set (who was often associated with the color red). There's a story that when it was discovered that the mummy's condition was rapidly deteriorating in the 1970s, Ramses was sent to France for restoration, and that he was issue a formal Egyptian passport; this is actually an urban myth (though he did require extensive documentation to be moved, due to French law regarding the transportation of human remains), but he was received at the French airport with full military honors, befitting a king.

Notably, Ramses is one of a handful of pharaohs to be commonly known worldwide, along with Tutankhamun and Cleopatra VII. As was probably illustrated above, he had feared being forgotten after his death, and sought to make himself known to the future. By all accounts, he succeeded.

Tropes as portrayed in fiction:

• Adaptation Dye-Job: Despite the discovery he was red-haired in his youth (his mummy still has wispy red hair on its scalp), most portrayals after 1994 ^note except Princess of the Nile and Courage the Cowardly Dog of all things, which actually got it right still portrays him with black hair. Probably because a red haired Egyptian would run into both Reality Is Unrealistic and Black Vikings territory and the unaware might perceive it as a Race Lift with very Unfortunate Implications.^note A now discredited racist theory attributes all the achievements of the ancient Egyptians to a "pharaonic race" that somehow kept ruling over the place for millennia and which was white or at least whiter than today's Egyptians. This is of course impossible even with all the incest the Egyptian royal families were known for through the ages. The Egyptians themselves will often annoyedly comment that there are and more or less always have been Egyptians of all skin and hair colors, the country being a crossroads and melting pot for millennia; indeed, recent scholarship puts the Ramses dynasty as being descended from immigrants. Furthermore, the Egyptians were no strangers to intermarrying with other regional royal families, and so foreign genetics were occasionally introduced to the Pharaonic line (that is, when they weren't inbreeding).
• Adapted Out:
  • As a young man, according to temple inscriptions, Ramses owned a lion that fought alongside him at Kadesh. The only works of fiction to have featured this lion has been the book series by Christian Jacq, Thunder at Kadesh by Gordon Doherty and the Classics Illustrated issue "The Ten Commandments".
  • Screen adaptations tend to omit most of his children to the point where he only has one or two, though this depends on his role in adaptations of the Exodus. When he is the Pharaoh of the Oppression, he will have two at the most, while he usually only has one when he is the Pharaoh of the Exodus. The H. Rider Haggard novel Moon of Israel is notable for featuring him as the Pharaoh of the Oppression and going past the two child limit with his thirteenth son and successor Merneptah being the initial pharaoh in the story, Merneptah's elder brother Khaemwaset being mentioned, and an unidentified daughter, who was Moses' adoptive mother, being mentioned.
• Big Bad or Predecessor Villain: In adaptations of the Exodus, which he is depends on whether he is the Pharaoh of the Exodus or the Pharaoh of the Oppression. If he is the former, then either his father Seti I or his grandfather Ramses I will be the latter. If he is the latter, then his son Merneptah will be the former. The one exception is The Moon of Israel where the Pharaoh of the Exodus is Amenmesse, one of Merneptah's two successors who was either a younger son of Ramses or a younger son of Merneptah. (He is specifically portrayed as Merneptah's nephew, being the son of his elder brother Khaemweset.)
• Cool Crown: He is often represented wearing the Kepresh, or "Blue Crown of War", which was basically a Cool Crown of the Pimped Out Helmet variety; basically a star-studed blue helmet with the royal ureus (the cobra) which was used during battle.
• Dated History: In 1994, Ramses was discovered to be a redhead and in 2016, he was discovered to be fair-skinned. Portrayals of him where he is black haired and brown skinned are thus dated. Since there have always been Egyptians of all skin and hair colors (some of Ramses' own hieroglyphic murals depict his subjects running the full gamut of skin colors), this shouldn't come across as surprising though.
• Due to the Dead: When his mummified remains were brought to France in September of 1976, millennia after his death, his arrival was celebrated like that of any contemporary, living royalty.
• The Evil Prince: He is sometimes portrayed as this in fiction, and at one point, Egyptologists believed he had been responsible for the disappearance of Seti I's true successor (whose name was erased of all records after the latter's death). But Ramses fans think this is slander.
• Folk Hero: Even today the Egyptians regard him as a national hero and many claim proudly to be his descendants. Given the number of his children (ninety-six sons and sixty daughters) such a claim is more than probable and effectively all but meaningless. He is often refered to as the "Great Ancestor" and it's thought that barring any extremely isolated tribes, everyone living today is a direct descendant of the guy.
• The Good King: The works that don't villify him tend to portray him as this, in line with how modern Egyptians view him.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: He tends to be depicted as the tyrannical Pharaoh of the Exodus in media the most often out of the historical candidates for the role (with his son Merneptah being the second most frequent and Amenmesse, son or grandson to Ramses, having been portrayed in the role once). Historical consensus is that it's unlikely for him to have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus because the dates don't line up (Ramses was from the Nineteenth Dynasty in the thirteenth century, whereas Biblical chronology indicates that the Exodus, if it happened at all, would've likely occurred within the fifteenth century and around the Eighteenth Dynasty) and his achievements, exaggerated or not, would've been outright impossible had most of his workforce left overnight. That would've definitely plunged Egypt into chaos for generations.
• Inconsistent Spelling: There are three different accepted spellings of his name so naturally it varies depending on the work. His name could be spelled "Ramses", "Rameses" or "Ramesses."
• Outliving One's Offspring: Frequently the case with Exodus adaptations, but historically he did outlive many of his sons, the first twelve no less, only three of whom actually served as crown prince. His firstborn Amun-her-khepeshef was crown prince for twenty-five years (thus he was not the child he is often portrayed as), his second also called Ramesses was crown prince for twenty-five years after that and his fourth son Khaemwest was crown prince for the next five years, after which his thirteenth son Merneptah was crown prince for the remaining eleven years, succeeding his father at the age of seventy.
• Phenotype Stereotype: Unlike his portrayal in movies, where it is black, when not shaved off, examinations of his mummy showed that he had red hair.
• Race Lift: Some screen portrayals of him do not seem to match Ceccaldi's observation of Ramesses having been a "Berber type" (This does not mean he actually was a Berber, just that ethnically he may have come from a similar group), who can be fair-skinned and red-haired. This may be in relation to the fact that Egypt is not always portrayed as diverse as it was in ancient times.
• Red-Headed Hero: When a work portrays him heroically and remembers he had red hair, this is the end result. Strangely, he rarely if ever shows up as an Evil Redhead except on Courage the Cowardly Dog.
• Saved by Canon: If he is used as the Pharaoh of the Exodus, expect him to be the Sole Survivor of his army when the Red Sea claims them since he historically died of old age and his mummified body has been recovered in 1881.

Portrayals in Media: