The Head of Humbaba
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Sarah B. Graff
Abstract
A large corpus of terracotta plaques bearing the image of the demon Humbaba/ Huwawa, a major character in the Gilgamesh epic, have been excavated from late third and early second millennium BCE contexts at numerous sites in Mesopotamia. This essay explores the motif of Humbaba’s severed head within its ancient Near Eastern context in order to demonstrate that the head differs from other images of decapitation, as a representation whose supernatural power is unaffected by death. It concludes that the terracotta plaques were interpreted in sophisticated and multivalent ways by ancient audiences: as visual narratives representing a key moment in the epic; as apotropaic images displayed to guard transitions; and as important omens recorded in the past, which had the potential to reappear in the present.
© 2013 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Introduction
- I Evil Spirits, Monsters and Benevolent Protectors: Demonology in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (Conference at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York)
- Towards a Comparative Approach to Demonology in Antiquity: The Case of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia
- Striking Cobra Spitting Fire
- Divine Taxonomy in the Underworld Books
- Das Krokodil als göttliche Waffe in einer medico-magischen Bildkomposition aus Deir el Medineh
- Amente Demons and Christian Syncretism
- Mesopotamian Conceptions of the Supernatural: A Taxonomy of Zwischenwesen
- “Their Divinity is Different, Their Nature is Distinct!” Nature, Origin, and Features of Demons in Akkadian Literature
- The Head of Humbaba
- II Daimones and Demons in the Wider Mediterranean World
- The Corpse Daemon Antinoos
- Daimones in the Thracian Sea: Mysteries, Iron, and Metaphors
- Bodiless Docetists and the Daimonic Jesus: Daimonological Discourse and Anti-Docetic Polemic in Ignatius’ Letter to the Smyrnaeans
- “Oh, Lord, Give This One a Daimon So That He May No Longer Sin”: The Holy Man and His Daimones in Hagiography
- III Research
- Forschungsbericht Römische Religion (2009– 2011)
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Introduction
- I Evil Spirits, Monsters and Benevolent Protectors: Demonology in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (Conference at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York)
- Towards a Comparative Approach to Demonology in Antiquity: The Case of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia
- Striking Cobra Spitting Fire
- Divine Taxonomy in the Underworld Books
- Das Krokodil als göttliche Waffe in einer medico-magischen Bildkomposition aus Deir el Medineh
- Amente Demons and Christian Syncretism
- Mesopotamian Conceptions of the Supernatural: A Taxonomy of Zwischenwesen
- “Their Divinity is Different, Their Nature is Distinct!” Nature, Origin, and Features of Demons in Akkadian Literature
- The Head of Humbaba
- II Daimones and Demons in the Wider Mediterranean World
- The Corpse Daemon Antinoos
- Daimones in the Thracian Sea: Mysteries, Iron, and Metaphors
- Bodiless Docetists and the Daimonic Jesus: Daimonological Discourse and Anti-Docetic Polemic in Ignatius’ Letter to the Smyrnaeans
- “Oh, Lord, Give This One a Daimon So That He May No Longer Sin”: The Holy Man and His Daimones in Hagiography
- III Research
- Forschungsbericht Römische Religion (2009– 2011)
