History UsefulNotes / RamsesII

** 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 pass the two child limit with his thirteen 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.

To modern Egyptians, he's a national hero - sort of the equivalent of Myth/KingArthur, part real man and part legend - whereas to the rest of the world he is best known for his portrayal as [[Literature/BookOfExodus the Pharaoh of the Exodus]]. Believers actually claim that it's more likely that one of the pharaohs of the earlier Eighteenth Dynasty (the one with Thutmose, Hatshepsut, UsefulNotes/{{Akhenaten}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}}) was the one in Exodus. (Ramses himself was the third monarch of the Nineteenth Dynasty.) However, Egyptian rule in Canaan continued throughout that time and through his 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. Also, the first mention of Israel outside of the Bible occurs in a record made sometime after his death, during his son's period on the throne, which indicates possible involvement, at least in the background. Altogether, the evidence points to the events on which Exodus is based most likely happening—if they happened at all—during the decline of the New Kingdom and the retreat of the Egyptian Empire from Canaan, which really only began after Ramesses II's death.

* He appears as a Rider-class8 Servant in ''Anime/FatePrototype: Fragments of Sky Silver'', referring to himself as Ozymandias. Like many Servants in the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}, there's some AlternateHistory with his backstory. Moses was his best friend, and while their backstory does follow the events of the ''Literature/BookOfExodus'', Ramesses does not pursue the Israelites upon seeing Moses part the Red Sea. Instead, he [[GracefulLoser bids his once close friend farewell and lets Moses and the Israelites leave unopposed]]. Additionally, his backstory seems to be a combination of ''Film/TheTenCommandments1956''[[note]]In which Nefertari is a notable person in Ramesses and Moses' lives. Though Ramesses in ''Prototype'' is shown to love her very much unlike the Ramesses of ''Ten Commandments'' who only viewed her as a trophy[[/note]] and ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt''[[note]]In which Ramesses and Moses viewed each other as brothers. Though in that case, they were foster brothers while they are close friends in the Nasuverse[[/note]].

* FolkHero: 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 baring any extremely isolated tribes everyone living today is a direct descendant of the guy.

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.

[[TheMagnificent 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]].[[note]]"Ma'at"=truth, justice, righteousness, [[UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}} the Way]]; "Userma'atre`"="Powerful is the ma'at of [[Characters/EgyptianMythology Ra]]"; "Setepenre`"="The Chosen of Ra"; "Ramesses"="Ra`messu"="Born of Ra"; "Meryamun"="Beloved of Amun".[[/note]] Also known as Ramses the Great, Ramses II (1303 BC -- 1213 BC) was the third king of the [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory 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 [[UsefulNotes/{{Akhenaten}} Amarna Period]]. He is thus popularly considered the greatest and most famous of all {{Ancient Egypt}}ian pharaohs.

-->--'''Creator/PercyByssheShelley''', "Ozymandias" (that title being the UsefulNotes/{{Ancient Gree|ce}}k name for Ramses II[[note]]Derived from his throne name ''Userma'atre`''[[/note]])

* The second campaign of ''Cleopatra'', the expansion of ''Videogame/{{Pharaoh}}'', takes place during his reign and has the player building his iconic monuments and fending off the Hittites. One of the missions is an adaptation of the Literature/BookOfExodus, one of the ''very'' few to be told from the perspective of "the Pharaoh" instead of Moses.
* He is Egypt's leader (or one of them) in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} IV'' and ''V''.

* FolkHero: 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. He is often refered to as the "Great Ancestor".

To modern Egyptians, he's a national hero - sort of the equivalent of Myth/KingArthur, part real man and part legend - whereas to the rest of the world he is best known for his portrayal as [[Literature/BookOfExodus the Pharaoh of the Exodus]]. Believers actually claim that it's more likely that one of the pharaohs of the earlier Eighteenth Dynasty (the one with Thutmose, Hatshepsut, UsefulNotes/{{Akhenaten}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}}) was the one in Exodus. (Ramses himself was the third monarch of the Nineteenth Dynasty.) However, Egyptian rule in Canaan continued throughout that time and through his 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. Also, the first mention of Israel outside of the Bible occurs in a record made sometime after his death, during his son's period on the throne, which indicates possible involvement.

[[TheMagnificent 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]].[[note]]"Ma'at"=truth, justice, righteousness, [[UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}} the Way]]; "Userma'atre`"="Powerful is the ma'at of [[Characters/EgyptianMythology Ra]]"; "Setepenre`"="The Chosen of Ra"; "Ramesses"="Ra`messu"="Born of Ra"; "Meryamun"="Beloved of Amun".[[/note]] Also known as Ramses the Great, Ramses II (1303 BC -- 1213 BC) was the third king of the [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory 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. He is thus popularly considered the greatest and most famous of all {{Ancient Egypt}}ian pharaohs.

[[TheMagnificent 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]].[[note]]"Ma'at"=truth, justice, righteousness, [[UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}} the Way]]; "Userma'atre`"="Powerful is the ma'at of [[Characters/EgyptianMythology Ra]]"; "Setepenre`"="The Chosen of Ra"; "Ramesses"="Ra`messu"="Born of Ra"; "Meryamun"="Beloved of Amun".[[/note]] Also known as Ramses the Great, Ramses II (1303 BC -- 1213 BC) was the third king of the [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Nineteenth Dynasty]]. His long reign was an era of political stability, military power, economic prosperity, and cultural flourishing for New Kingdom Egypt. He is thus popularly considered the greatest and most famous of all {{Ancient Egypt}}ian pharaohs.

[[TheMagnificent The Horus, the Strong Bull, Beloved of Ma'at; he of 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]].[[note]]"Ma'at"=truth, justice, righteousness, [[UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}} the Way]]; "Userma'atre`"="Powerful is the ma'at of [[Characters/EgyptianMythology Ra]]"; "Setepenre`"="The Chosen of Ra"; "Ramesses"="Ra`messu"="Born of Ra"; "Meryamun"="Beloved of Amun".[[/note]] Also known as Ramses the Great, Ramses II (1303 BC -- 1213 BC) was the third king of the [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Nineteenth Dynasty]]. His long reign was an era of political stability, military power, economic prosperity, and cultural flourishing for New Kingdom Egypt. He is thus popularly considered the greatest and most famous of all {{Ancient Egypt}}ian pharaohs.

[[TheMagnificent The Horus, the Strong Bull, Beloved of Ma'at; he of 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]].[[note]]"Ma'at"=truth, justice, righteousness, [[UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}} the Way]]; "Userma'atre`"="Powerful is the ma'at of Ra"; "Setepenre`"="The Chosen of Re"; "Ramesses"="Ra`messu"="Born of Ra"; "Meryamun"="Beloved of Amun".[[/note]] Also known as Ramses the Great, Ramses II (1303 BC -- 1213 BC) was the third king of the [[UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory Nineteenth Dynasty]]. His long reign was an era of political stability, military power, economic prosperity, and cultural flourishing for New Kingdom Egypt. He is thus popularly considered the greatest and most famous of all {{Ancient Egypt}}ian pharaohs.

[[TheMagnificent The Horus, the Strong Bull, Beloved of Ma'at; he of 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]].[[note]]"Ma'at"=truth, justice, righteousness, [[UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}} the Way]]; "Userma'atre`"="Powerful is the ma'at of Ra"; "Setepenre`"="The Chosen of Re"; "Ramesses"="Ra`messu"="Born of Ra"; "Meryamun"="Beloved of Amun".[[/note]] Also known as Ramses the Great, Ramses II (1303 BC -- 1213 BC) is popularly considered the greatest and most famous of all {{Ancient Egypt}}ian pharaohs.

-->--'''Creator/PercyByssheShelley''', "Ozymandias" (that title being the UsefulNotes/{{Ancient Gree|ce}}k name for Ramses II)


Also known as Ramses the Great, Ramses II (1303 BC -- 1213 BC) is popularly considered the greatest and most famous of all {{Ancient Egypt}}ian pharaohs.

* DarkSkinnedRedhead: Portrayals that feature him with his red hair tend to forget he was fair-skinned as well and thus this trope is the end result.

Also known as Ramses the Great, Ramses II (1303 BC -- 1213 BC) is 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 Myth/KingArthur, part real man and part legend - whereas to the rest of the world he is best known for his portrayal as [[Literature/BookOfExodus the Pharaoh of the Exodus]]. Believers actually claim that it's more likely that one of the pharaohs of the earlier Eighteenth Dynasty (the one with Thutmose, Hatshepsut, UsefulNotes/{{Akhenaten}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}}) was the one in Exodus. (Ramses himself was the third monarch of the Nineteenth Dynasty.) However, Egyptian rule in Canaan continued throughout that time and through his 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. Also, the first mention of Israel outside of the Bible occurs in a record made sometime after his death, during his son's period on the throne, which indicates possible involvement.

** 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.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Historical consensus is that he almost certainly wasn't the [[NephariousPharaoh Pharaoh of the Exodus]], but he's frequently depicted as the notorious tyrant in popular culture with his son Merneptah being the second most frequent and Amenmesse, son or grandson to Ramses, having been portrayed in the role once. Bottom line: The man and his descendants get a bad portrayal most of the time. Positive portrayals of Ramses and Merneptah can be found but due to Amenmesse having been a usurper his portrayals are universally negative.

* He appears as a Rider-class8 Servant in ''Anime/FatePrototype: Fragments of Sky Silver'', referring to himself as Ozymandias. Like many Servants in the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}, there's some AlternateHistory with his backstory. Moses was his best friend, and while their backstory does follow the events of the ''Literature/BookOfExodus'', Ramesses does not pursue the Israelites upon seeing Moses part the Red Sea. Instead, he [[GracefulLoser bids his once close friend farewell and lets Moses and the Israelites leave unopposed]]. Additionally, his backstory seems to be a combination of ''Film/TheTenCommandments''[[note]]In which Nefertari is a notable person in Ramesses and Moses' lives. Though Ramesses in ''Prototype'' is shown to love her very much unlike the Ramesses of ''Ten Commandments'' who only viewed her as a trophy[[/note]] and ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt''[[note]]In which Ramesses and Moses viewed each other as brothers. Though in that case, they were foster brothers while they are close friends in the Nasuverse[[/note]].

** ''Film/{{The Ten Commandments|1923}}'' (1923), portrayed by Charles De Rochefort.
** ''Film/TheTenCommandments'' (1956), portrayed by Creator/YulBrynner.

** 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 and ''Literature/ThunderAtKadesh'' by Gordon Doherty.

* The second campaign of ''Cleopatra'', the expansion of ''Videogame/{{Pharaoh}}'', takes place during his reign and has the player building his iconic monuments and fending off the Hittites. One of the missions is an adaptation of Literature/TheBookOfExodus, one of the ''very'' few to be told from the perspective of "the Pharaoh" instead of Moses.

* The second campaign of ''Cleopatra'', the expansion of ''Videogame/{{Pharaoh}}'', takes place during his reign and has the player building his iconic monuments and fending off the Hittites.

* DatedHistory: 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 is 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.

** 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.

* RedHeadedHero: When a work portrays him heroically and remembers he had red hair, this is the end result. Strangely, EvilRedhead portrayals are either less common or non-existent (except on ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'').

* RedHeadedHero: When a work portrays him heroically and remembers he had red hair, this is the end result. Strangely, EvilRedhead portrayals are either less common or non-existent.