A few examples:
Below is a tribute to the god Amun, represented as a ram, protecting King Taharqa.
The Parthenon's main sculptures are Greek Gods:
This Annunciation scene by Italian artist Paolo de Matteis from 1712 is one of so so many examples of Christian art's very intentional use of the colors gold and blue to best pay tribute to God.
Similarly in Westminster Abbey, King Henry III wanted to be buried as close to the center of the church as possible (I think close to the architect?), wanting the fasttrack to heaven.
Romantics like Percy Shelley continue the tradition of thinking about legacy. I'll use his poems "Ozymandias" and "Ode to the West Wind" as examples.
Ozymandias - power’s ephemerality
"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."
Shelley is clearly preoccupied by thoughts of legacy and power--both of which long ago vanished for Ramses II. But unlike earlier thoughts on legacy, Shelley is pessimistic, suggesting that attempts to make one's self "symbolically immortal" (see link--might give a little trouble because it's through OhioLink) are in vain.
"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."
Shelley is clearly preoccupied by thoughts of legacy and power--both of which long ago vanished for Ramses II. But unlike earlier thoughts on legacy, Shelley is pessimistic, suggesting that attempts to make one's self "symbolically immortal" (see link--might give a little trouble because it's through OhioLink) are in vain.
Ode to the West Wind - seeds of his writing spreading
The poem is very much about the cycle of life and death, paralleled by the west wind that comes and goes in its own cycle, the word 'wind' having the double meaning of breath or spirit.
In some parts of the poem, the speaker is accepting of death. "Hectic red" in section 1, describing colored leaves of fall, also refers to "the kind of fever that occurs in tuberculosis" (thank you Norton footnote!). Section 2 describes a fierce approaching storm, which could be seen as death.
However, as the poem goes on, the speaker definitely shows hints of thinking and wishing for a 'beyond' past death. In section 4, "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!" seems a clear allusion to Christ's crown of thorns--suggesting his eventual resurrection.
Even more clearly, in section 5, the speaker begs the wind to "Drive my dead thoughts over the universe / Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth! / And, by the incantation of this verse / Scatter...my words among mankind!"
So while section 4 shows a religious sense of self-legacy, section 5 shows the speaker's desire for legacy through the words of the poem, through creativity, and through the influence words can have on other people--a very different sense of symbolic immortality than that of earlier thinkers.
The poem is very much about the cycle of life and death, paralleled by the west wind that comes and goes in its own cycle, the word 'wind' having the double meaning of breath or spirit.
In some parts of the poem, the speaker is accepting of death. "Hectic red" in section 1, describing colored leaves of fall, also refers to "the kind of fever that occurs in tuberculosis" (thank you Norton footnote!). Section 2 describes a fierce approaching storm, which could be seen as death.
However, as the poem goes on, the speaker definitely shows hints of thinking and wishing for a 'beyond' past death. In section 4, "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!" seems a clear allusion to Christ's crown of thorns--suggesting his eventual resurrection.
Even more clearly, in section 5, the speaker begs the wind to "Drive my dead thoughts over the universe / Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth! / And, by the incantation of this verse / Scatter...my words among mankind!"
So while section 4 shows a religious sense of self-legacy, section 5 shows the speaker's desire for legacy through the words of the poem, through creativity, and through the influence words can have on other people--a very different sense of symbolic immortality than that of earlier thinkers.
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