In Akkadian mythology
Humbaba (Assyrian spelling) or
Huwawa,(Babylonian) also
Humbaba the Terrible was a monstrous
giantThe mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...
of immemorial age raised by
UtuUtu is the Sumerian for "Sun". The Sumerian cuneiform character is encoded in Unicode at U+12313 ....
, the Sun. Humbaba was the guardian of the
Cedar ForestThe Cedar Forest is the glorious realm of the gods of Mesopotamian mythology. It is guarded by the demigod Humbaba and was once entered by the hero Gilgamesh who dared cut down trees from its virgin stands during his quest for immortality...
, where the gods lived, by the will of the god
EnlilEnlil , was the name of a chief deity listed and written about in ancient Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Canaanite and other Mesopotamian clay and stone tablets...
, who "assigned [Humbaba] as a terror to human beings".
His face is that of a lion. "When he looks at someone, it is the look of death." "Humbaba's roar is a flood, his mouth is death and his breath is fire! He can hear a hundred leagues away any (rustling?) in his forest! Who would go down into his forest!" In various examples, his face is scribed in a single coiling line like that of the coiled entrails of men and beasts, from which omens might be read.
In Akkadian mythology
Humbaba (Assyrian spelling) or
Huwawa,(Babylonian) also
Humbaba the Terrible was a monstrous
giantThe mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...
of immemorial age raised by
UtuUtu is the Sumerian for "Sun". The Sumerian cuneiform character is encoded in Unicode at U+12313 ....
, the Sun. Humbaba was the guardian of the
Cedar ForestThe Cedar Forest is the glorious realm of the gods of Mesopotamian mythology. It is guarded by the demigod Humbaba and was once entered by the hero Gilgamesh who dared cut down trees from its virgin stands during his quest for immortality...
, where the gods lived, by the will of the god
EnlilEnlil , was the name of a chief deity listed and written about in ancient Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Canaanite and other Mesopotamian clay and stone tablets...
, who "assigned [Humbaba] as a terror to human beings".
Description
His face is that of a lion. "When he looks at someone, it is the look of death." "Humbaba's roar is a flood, his mouth is death and his breath is fire! He can hear a hundred leagues away any (rustling?) in his forest! Who would go down into his forest!" In various examples, his face is scribed in a single coiling line like that of the coiled entrails of men and beasts, from which omens might be read. This has led to the name "Guardian of the Fortress of Intestines." He is the brother of
PazuzuIn Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, Pazuzu was the king of the demons of the wind, and son of the god Hanbi. He also represented the southwestern wind, the bearer of storms and drought.- Iconography :...
and
EnkiEnki was a god in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Akkadian and Babylonian mythology. He was originally patron god of the city of Eridu, but later the influence of his cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and to the Hittites and Hurrians...
and son of
HanbiIn Sumerian and Akkadian mythology Hanbi or Hanpa was the and father of the more well known Pazuzu. Other than his relationship with Pazuzu, very little is known of this figure. ...
.
Demise
Humbaba is first mentioned in Tablet II of the
Epic of GilgameshThe Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Iraq and is among the earliest known works of literary writings. Scholars believe that it originated as a series of Sumerian legends and poems about the mythological hero-king Gilgamesh, which were gathered into a longer Akkadian poem much later;...
: after they become friends following their initial fight,
GilgameshGilgamesh, also known as Bilgameṣ in the earliest text, was the son of Lugalbanda and the fifth king of Uruk , ruling circa 2700 BC, according to the Sumerian king list...
and
EnkiduEnkidu is a central figure in the Ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. In the story he is a wild-man raised by animals and ignorant of human society until he is bedded by the Shamhat...
set out on an adventure to the Cedar Forest beyond the seventh mountain range, to slay Huwawa (Humbaba): "Enkidu," Gilgamesh vows, "since a man cannot pass beyond the final end of life, I want to set off into the mountains, to establish my renown there." Gilgamesh tricks the monster into giving away his seven "radiances" by offering his sisters as wife and concubine. When Humbaba's guard is down, Gilgamesh punches him and captures the monster. Defeated, Humbaba appeals to a receptive Gilgamesh for mercy, but Enkidu convinces Gilgamesh to slay Humbaba. In a last effort, Humbaba tries to escape but is decapitated by Enkidu, or in some versions by both heroes together; his head is put in a leather sack, which is brought to
EnlilEnlil , was the name of a chief deity listed and written about in ancient Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Canaanite and other Mesopotamian clay and stone tablets...
, the god who set Humbaba as the forest's guardian. Enlil becomes enraged upon learning this and redistributes Humbaba's seven splendors (or in some tablets "auras"). "He gave Humbaba's first aura to the fields. He gave his second aura to the rivers. He gave his third aura to the reed-beds. He gave his fourth aura to the lions. He gave his fifth aura to the palace (one text has
debt slaves). He gave his sixth aura to the forests (one text has
the hills). He gave his seventh aura to Nungal". It is interesting to note that no vengeance was laid upon the heroes, though Enlil says "He should have eaten the bread that you eat, and should have drunk the water that you drink! He should have been honoured".
As each gift was given by Gilgamesh, he received from Humbaba a "terror" (= "radiance") in exchange, from Huwawa. The 7 gifts successively given by Gilgamesh were : (1) his sister Ma-tur, (2) the mountains, (3) eca-flour, (4) big shoes, (5) tiny shoes, (6) semi-precious stones, and (7) a bundle of tree-branches.
While Gilgamesh thus distracts and tricks this spirit of the cedar forest, the fifty unmarried young men he has brought on the adventure are felling cedar timber, stripping it of its branches and laying it "in many piles on the hillside", ready to be taken away. Thus the adventure reveals itself in the context of a timber raid, bringing cedar wood to timberless
MesopotamiaMesopotamia "land between the rivers" is a name for the Tigris–Euphrates region in the eastern Mediterranean, largely corresponding to Iraq, as well as northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khūzestān Province of southwestern...
.
As his death approaches, and Gilgamesh is oppressed with his own mortality, the gods remind him of his great feats: "...having fetched cedar, the unique tree, from its mountains, having killed Humbaba in the forest..."
The iconography of the apotropaic severed head of Humbaba, with staring eyes, flowing beard and wild hair, is well documented from the
First Babylonian DynastyThe chronology of the first dynasty of Babylonia is debated as there is a Babylonian King List A and a Babylonian King List B. In this chronology, the regnal years of List A are used due to their wide usage...
, continuing into Neo-Assyrian art and dying away during the Achaemenid rule. The decapitated head of the monstrous Humbaba found a Greek parallel in the myth of
PerseusPerseus , the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths in the cult of the Twelve Olympians...
and the similarly employed head of
MedusaIn Greek mythology, Medusa , "guardian, protectress") was a gorgon, a chthonic female monster; gazing directly upon her would turn onlookers to stone. She was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head as a weapon until giving it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield...
, which Perseus placed in his leather sack. Archaic Greek depictions of the
gorgoneionIn Ancient Greece, the Gorgoneion was originally a horror-creating apotropaic amulet showing the Gorgon's head. It was associated with the deities Zeus and Athena; both are said to have worn it as a pendant...
render it bearded, an anomaly in the female Gorgon. Judith McKenzie detected Humbaba heads in a Nabatean tomb frieze at
PetraPetra is an archaeological site in the Arabah, Ma'an Governorate, Jordan, lying on the slope of Mount Hor in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah , the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture...
.