#i like this mix of classical + biblical + romantic / pre-raphealite

[cappymightwrite]

King of Kings and Feet of Clay...

Another gigantic harpy stood atop the gate [in Astapor], this one made of baked red clay and crumbling visibly, with no more than a stub of her scorpion's tail remaining. The chain she grasped in her clay claws was old iron, rotten with rust. ~ A Storm of Swords, Daenerys II

Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. ~ Daniel, 2, 31-35, King James Version

I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desart. 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. ~  Percy Shelley, Ozymandias, 1819 edition

"You have brought freedom as well," Missandei pointed out. "Freedom to starve?" asked Dany sharply. "Freedom to die? Am I a dragon, or a harpy?" Am I mad? Do I have the taint? "A dragon," Ser Barristan said with certainty. "Meeren is not Westeros, Your Grace." ~ A Storm of Swords, Daenerys VI

Detail from Ulysses and the Sirens, John William Waterhouse / The remains of an Ozymandias statue at the Ramesseum of ancient Thebes in Egypt / Detail from Statue of Ramesses II c. 1250 BC

#cappy's thoughts #daany critical #just some food for thought #feet of clay #ozymandias king of kings #a harpy or a dragon? #tagging vaguely to avoid drama #hopefully... fingers crossed #i like this mix of classical + biblical + romantic / pre-raphealite