Introduction
Humbaba (also Huwawa) is the monstrous guardian of the Cedar Forest, placed there specifically by the god Enlil to protect its sacred trees from mortal intrusion.
Family
- No further family relationships recorded in this tree.
Guardian Slain, Curse Invoked
Gilgamesh and Enkidu's expedition to the Cedar Forest to kill Humbaba and claim its valuable cedar timber for Uruk forms one of the epic's major early episodes; despite Humbaba's pleas for mercy once defeated, the pair killed him, an act some versions of the epic frame as bringing divine displeasure down upon them, contributing to Enkidu's subsequent fated death as punishment.
Mesopotamian religion spans Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian sources composed and recopied across nearly three thousand years, so names, genealogies, and even a deity's role often shift between traditions (Sumerian An/Enki/Inanna alongside their Akkadian/Babylonian forms Anu/Ea/Ishtar); the account above follows the most widely attested version, usually as consolidated in the Babylonian Enuma Elish or the standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh.