So, he smiled through the pain. That is a physical courage we rarely talk about—the courage to simply endure for the sake of others. Let’s talk about Abu Simbel. Ramses ordered two temples carved into a solid sandstone mountain on the Nubian border. The façade features four colossal seated statues of himself, each 66 feet tall.
Charge the line. Build the monument. Live so loudly that the future has no choice but to remember your name.
He didn't break the Hittite line—that’s impossible. But he held them. He killed the Hittite chariot commanders one by one until the Hittite king, Muwatalli II, hesitated. That hesitation allowed the Egyptian Ne'arin (mercenary reinforcements) to arrive and salvage the day. king ramses courage
And Ramses is alone. Here is where courage stops being a concept and becomes a noun. According to the Poem of Pentaur (the official Egyptian battle report, which, yes, is propaganda, but propaganda often hides a grain of terrifying truth), Ramses realizes he has no reinforcements coming. He turns to his fleeing charioteer and says, “What is this you have done, my princes? Is there one among you who can seize a bow? My infantry and chariotry have deserted me.”
Here is why King Ramses’ courage should still terrify and inspire us today. Let’s set the scene: 1274 BCE. The banks of the Orontes River in modern-day Syria. Ramses is roughly 30 years old—young for a pharaoh, arrogant, and eager to prove himself. The Hittite Empire, a brutal superpower to the north, is threatening Egypt’s borders. So, he smiled through the pain
Ramses marches north with four divisions of troops. But there is a fatal flaw: his intelligence is wrong. His scouts, either bribed or incompetent, report that the Hittite army is far away near Aleppo. Relaxed, Ramses pushes ahead with his personal division, the Amun , and sets up camp.
Furthermore, the temple was oriented so that twice a year (on his birthday and his coronation day), the sun would penetrate the inner sanctuary to illuminate the statues of Ramses and the gods—except for Ptah, the god of darkness, who remained in shadow. Ramses literally rewrote the laws of the universe to prove he was divine. Ramses ordered two temples carved into a solid
Not the absence of fear, but the creation of a legend so dense, so massive, that 3,000 years later, you still have to salute him when he passes through customs.