RAMSES răm’ səz (Egyp. R’-ms-sw, Ra [sungod] is the one who created him; cf. Heb. Ra’amses). Name of eleven pharaohs of Egypt and epithet of two others.
A. Nineteenth dynasty
1. Ramses I. Founder of the nineteenth dynasty, from northern Egypt and of military family. Elderly at accession, he reigned only sixteen months and was notable as the father of the redoubtable Sethos I.
2. Ramses II. Reigned sixty-six years (either 1304-1238 b.c., or 1290-1224 b.c.). Son of Sethos I and Queen Mut-tuy, both of military background (cf. Gaballa and Kitchen, Chronique d’Égypte, XLIII/85 [1968]); and like Queen Hatshepsut and Amenophis III, he used the myth of the divine birth of Pharaoh to emphasize the legitimacy of his kingship (data, Gaballa, Orientalia, XXXVI [1967], 299-304, plates 63-65).
Ramses II battled long against the Hittites in Syria. In his year 4, he prob. weaned the kingdom of Amurru from their sway. In year 5, he marched against Qadesh-on-Orontes—straight into a Hitt. trap, but extricated himself by remarkable personal valor and the timely arrival of auxiliaries. The famous battle received epic treatment in scenes and texts on temple walls; politically, it was a setback, but it was redeemed by Ramses’ personal heroism and by his subsequent campaigns (years 8, 10, etc.). His conquests also extended into Seir and Moab, including Dibon and (Raba)-Batora(?). The Hittites faced threats from Assyria and elsewhere, and both powers tired of the conflict. So, in his year 21, Ramses II and Hattusil III sagely made peace by a treaty of alliance faithfully honored thereafter. The peace was cemented by Ramses’ marrying in year 34 a daughter of Hattusil, and still later a second Hitt. princess. Summary references for Ramses II’s wars are in Kitchen, JEA, L (1964), 68, 69 (to which add Goedicke, JEA, LII [1966], 71-80), and in Moab, Kitchen, op. cit., 47-70. Peace treaty, see ANET, 199-203. First Hitt. marriage, Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, III, §§, 410, 415-424; second marriage, ibid., §§ 427, 428 and Kitchen and Gaballa, Ztsf., Aeg. Syr., XCVI [1969], 14-18.
In sheer quantity, the buildings of Ramses II surpass those of all other pharaohs. Suffice it to recall his ambitious Delta capital Pi-Ramessē, Biblical Raamses (q.v.), his completing the vast Hypostyle Hall (134 columns, nave 80 ft. high) at Thebes in the Karnak temple of the god Amun, the erection of the Ramesseum, his funerary temple containing a 1000-ton colossus (Shelley’s Ozymandias), on the Theban W bank, and finally in Nubia the two spectacular rock temples at Abu Simbel moved piecemeal to safety because of the new Nile high dam. Internally, Ramses’ reign was an era of peace and considerable prosperity; the impact of his image on later Egypt may be judged from the adoption of his name by almost a dozen later kings. On the intellectual plane, lit. flourished; besides stories, love lyrics, and the Qadesh battle poem, one may note the Satirical Letter (Papyrus Anastasi I) showing its author’s knowledge of Canaan (ANET, 475-479). Ramses II may have been the pharaoh of the Exodus (see Exodus); his proud self-confidence would fit the king of Exodus 5-12.
3. Ramses-Siptah. Reigned six years at the end of the dynasty, changing name to Mereneptah-Siptah; died young. Powers behind his throne were the dowager queen Tewosret and the chancellor Bay (of Syrian origin, with the powers of a Joseph). See Gardiner, JEA, XLIV (1958), 12-22.
B. Twentieth dynasty
1. Ramses III. Son of Setnakht who founded the dynasty; reigned thirty-one years. He fought three epic battles to deliver Egypt from threats of invasion. In year 5, he fended off the Libyans, but indecisively. In year 8, he fought a remarkable amphibious action in S Pal. and the E Delta Nile mouths against the sea-peoples including the Philistines (first mention in history), repulsing their army and destroying their fleet. In year 11, he finally defeated the Libyans more effectively. He also found occasion to fight in Edom (Seir, cf. ANET, 262a). At first, as the last great pharaoh of the empire, he outwardly maintained its façade. The end of his reign saw the onset of internal administrative decay that grew apace under his successors, and his closing years were marred by an attempted assassination. This king consciously modeled himself on Ramses II; e.g., in style of titulary, and even in the names of his sons. The most important building of this reign was his great funerary temple in western Thebes (Medinet Habu), superbly published by the Oriental Institute, Chicago, as Medinet Habu, 8 volumes, Excavations at Medinet Habu, 5 volumes, outline reports in Oriental Institute Communications, Nos. 5, 7, 10, 15, 18; historical texts are tr. by Edgerton and Wilson, Historical Records of Ramses III, 1936. See also next reign.
2. Ramses IV. Reigned only six years, but according to a famous stela from Abydos prayed for a reign of sixty-seven years like Ramses II. He compiled a list of his father Ramses III’s benefactions to Egypt’s temples to support his succession; the Papyrus Harris is the longest Egyp. papyrus known (135 ft. long); tr. cf. Breasted, Ancient Records, IV, §§ 151ff.
3. Ramses V. Son of Ramses IV; reigned only four years, dying of smallpox while still but a youth. His reign is famed for the vast Papyrus Wilbour, part of a land-survey of Middle Egypt, a document of immense value for study of administration and institutions (Gardiner, The Wilbour Papyrus, 4 vols., [1941-1952]).
4. Ramses VI. Reigned at least seven years; took over and completed his nephew Ramses V’s tomb in the Theban Valley of Kings with important funerary texts.
5. Ramses VII. Reigned seven years; whether he preceded or succeeded the next king is still uncertain.
6. Ramses VIII. An ephemeral ruler, highest date being his year 1.
7. Ramses IX. Reigned eighteen years. The high-priesthood of Amun at Thebes was ruled by one powerful family; administration was now so lax that even the tombs of the pharaohs themselves were being robbed. Jealousy between the mayors of E and W Thebes brought the scandal to light, leading to a royal commission reported on in a remarkable series of tomb-robbery papyri. See Peet, Great Tomb Robberies of the XXth Dynasty, I-II (1930); Capart, Gardiner, van de Walle, JEA, XXII (1936), 169-193.
8. Ramses X. Of this reign of nine years, hardly anything is known.
9. Ramses XI. Last of his line, reigned at least twenty-seven years. The state was troubled by Libyan marauders and by civil war involving the viceroy of Nubia and perhaps the death or exile of a high priest of Amun of Thebes. The acute weakness of the state was outwardly resolved by appointing two high officials under the king, one each for Upper and Lower Eygpt. This was marked by a new era and year count from year 19, the so-called “Renaissance.” In the S, one Herihor was army commander, high priest of Amun and vizier; he aspired to royal rank but achieved it only in name. His descendants became hereditary high priests of Amun, a state within the state, during the twenty-first dynasty, which partly explains Egypt’s quiescence in foreign affairs early in the Heb. monarchy (see Land of Egypt). In the N, one Smendes was ruler and succeeded Ramses XI as king, to found the twenty-first dynasty, having (it seems) married a Ramesside princess.
C. Twenty-first dynasty and after
1. Psusennes I, c. 1040 b.c., occasionally adopted the double name Ramses-Psusennes, to stress his link (through Smendes) with the Ramessides, and so his legitimacy of rule. His successors were the contemporaries of David and Solomon (see Pharaoh's Daughter; Land of Egypt). The title “King’s Son of Ramses” was a high honorific title in this and the two following dynasties. This period, cf. Kitchen, Third Intermediate Period in Egypt [1972].
Bibliography General histories, see Land of Egypt. On Ramessides, cf. W. C. Hayes, Scepter of Egypt, II (1959); R. O. Faulkner, CAH2, II, and J. Cerny, CAH2, chs. 23 and 35 (1966, 1965 respectively). Most records of the period, J. A. Breasted, Ancient Records, III and IV. Foreign links, W. Helck, Beziehungen Aegyptens zu Vorderasien (1962); K. Kitchen, Ramesses II (1974).