Ozymandias

Ozymandias is the title of a famous poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1817 The titular name Ozymandias. (Variants: Ozymandias, Osymandyas; Greek Οσυμανδυας ) is the Hellenized by Diodorus version of the throne name " User -maat - re " ( "Re - User -maat ") of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II

Poem content

In the sonnet is about the story of a traveler who encounters in a desert on a crumbling monument of King Ozymandias. Theme is the transience of earthly works. The poem was written in December 1817 as part of a writing contest and was published in January 1818 first. Despite its continuing popularity, it is not considered one of the most important works of Shelley. The poem was set to music in 1941 by Richard Bales.

On the topic of the poem Shelley was inspired by the colossal head of a statue of Ramses II, who had been transported to London in 1816 at the instigation of Henry Salt by Giovanni Battista Belzoni from the Ramesseum at Thebes, and exhibited there.

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Reception

In the comic series Watchmen a character named Ozymandias is one of the main characters, whose real name Adrian Veidt is Alexander. Veidt gives himself the pseudonym Ozymandias, when he had established a group of drug traffickers and a policeman asks him who he was. Ozymandias appears as a devotee of ancient Egyptian culture, whose art he collects.

In August 2013, the piece was used in a teaser for the last 8 episodes of the TV series Breaking Bad in which the protagonist Walter White from the off recited to atmospheric panoramas of the poem. For the produced for the same reason episode of MythBusters, a similar teaser was produced, which is edited from scenes of MythBusters and is read by Jamie Hyneman.