Poem of Pentaur
The Kadesh Poem
A king's personal courage, holding a battlefield abandoned by his own army through the favor of a god who fights physically at his side, can turn a strategic near-disaster into a monument to unmatched valor.
- royal propaganda recasting a near-disaster as personal triumph
- a god depicted intervening directly in battle
- the text inscribed repeatedly across multiple temple walls
- long mistaken by early scholars for straightforward historical record
An epic poem, together with an accompanying prose bulletin, commemorating Ramesses II's campaign against the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh, inscribed on temple walls at Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, the Ramesseum, and Abu Simbel. It recounts how the king's forces were ambushed and scattered, leaving Ramesses briefly isolated, before the god Amun answers his prayer and the king single-handedly turns the battle through personal combat. Long read as literal history, the poem is now understood as royal propaganda transforming a costly, inconclusive engagement into an unambiguous personal triumph.
Commentary
Readers' notes on this work. No account needed - be scholarly, or at least civil.
Loading commentary…