The Other Ozymandias

Ozymandias
by 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

Perce Shelley's poem is based on an actual King that the Greek historians labeled Ozymandias. The real Ozymandias is none other than Ramesses II or Ramesses the great. With 162 documented wives, Ramesses is considered the greatest of the the Egyptian pharohs.

The following inscription appears on one of his statues:
I am Ozymandias, King of kings.
If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie,
let him surpass any of my works