Ramses II »

Useful Notes

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. His long reign was an era of political stability, military power, economic prosperity, and cultural flourishing for New Kingdom Egypt. Egyptians of the day seem to have seen Ramses's time as a restoration of the glories of the middle Eighteenth Dynasty, of the days of Thutmose III and Amenhotep III, after the chaos of the Amarna Period. He is thus popularly considered the greatest and most famous of all Ancient Egyptian pharaohs.

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. One of the few clues in the Bible as to the time of the Exodus is that the Hebrews laboured to build the cities of Pithom and Pi Ramses, which are now known to have been constructed or greatly expanded in his reign, but this is still a matter of debate.

Although he has often been accused of exaggerating his own achievements, Ramses remains one of the most powerful figures of ancient history. He was a courageous warrior, indefatigable ladies' man, builder of enormous temples (some of them dedicated to himself), and is notorious for being one of the two kings to sign the first peace treaty between superpowers in all of recorded history, the Kadesh Peace Treaty, a clay tablet dated 1269 BC, signed by Hattusilli III, King of the Hittites, and Ramses, Pharaoh of the Egyptians.

Notably, Ramses is one of a handful of pharaohs to be commonly known worldwide, along with Tutankhamun and Cleopatra VII. In 1976, when Ramses' mummy was brought to France for restoration, he was issued a passport noting his status and received a king's welcome. Contemporary records indicate that he had feared being forgotten after his death, and sought to make himself known to the future.^note He had good reason to fear this; Egyptian pharaohs already had a centuries-long history of chiseling off the names of their predecessors' monuments and claiming them for themselves. He carefully designed his monuments and the carvings of his royal steles in such a way that removing his name would be difficult. 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, 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 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: