Tyrian purple: Ancient pigment that was more valuable than gold

Re:Tyrian purple: Ancient pigment that was more valuable tha... by wolverine876 on Monday December 04, 2023 @12:59PM (#38520584)

> There were a bunch I didn't know about at all -- like medieval civilizations in Cambodia, Burma, and Jordan. They were wealthy, and built huge things, and then disappeared.

    I met a traveller from an antique land,
    Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
    Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
    Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
    And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
    Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
    The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
    And on the pedestal, these words appear:
    My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
    Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
    Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
    Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
    The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

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Re:Tyrian purple: Ancient pigment that was more valuable tha... by _a_a_a_ on Monday December 04, 2023 @01:22PM (#38520916)

There's a bit more to this story

"Shelley wrote the poem in friendly competition with his friend and fellow poet Horace Smith (1779–1849), who also wrote a sonnet on the same topic with the same title." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias

Horace's entry is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias_(Smith)

  In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
  Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
  The only shadow that the Desert knows:—
  "I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
  "The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
  The wonders of my hand."— The City's gone,—
  Naught but the Leg remaining to disclose
  The site of this forgotten Babylon.

  We wonder — and some Hunter may express
  Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
  Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
  He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
  What powerful but unrecorded race
  Once dwelt in that annihilated place

Shelley's is arguably better but I like both.

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