The Nameless, Summer 2025
Humbaba is a demon out of Mesopotamian and Near Eastern myths. In various stories, he is appointed by gods or a specific god to act as warden over the Cedar Forest. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, he guards it from humanity.
Fragment of an emblem of Humbaba;
as for Pazuzu, used to repel intruders.
The myth of Humbaba captures key aspects of the Iblisic narrative. Humanity has been given a role unsuited to it and esteem that it does not deserve. Humbaba, as a precursor to Iblis, acts to prevent mankind from access to it.
How can we go, my friend, to the Forest of Cedar?
The one who guards it is Wēr, he is mighty, never sleeping.
Ḫuwawa was appointed by Wēr,
Adad is the first, he the second!
In order to safeguard the cedar,
Enlil assigned him the Seven Terrors.
- From an older version of The Epic of Gilgamesh
I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.
- Genesis 9:15
In a real sense, then, we live in a "fallen world": the nature that produced us - particularly nature's ecosystems which fed and clothed us as we gathered and hunted - has been almost totally destroyed or seriously damaged during the 8,000-10,000 years of agriculture. We have really changed the face of the earth.
- "The Necessary Marriage Between Ecology and Agriculture"
The divinely anointed forest of the cedars in Lebanon.
The text below was excerpted from "The Last Gasp of the Cedar Forest":
"In the Epic of Gilgamesh (one of the earliest works of literature, dating to about 1800 BC), the 'Cedar Forest' is a central location. The heroes Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to the forest, where they kill its guardian, Humbaba. In celebration of getting rid of the guy who looked after the place, they cut down many cedars including one which was said to have been truly massive.
The tale is widely thought to be a memory of regional deforestation. In the several thousands of years since Gilgamesh and Enkidu's rampage, virtually every empire in the Mediterranean-Middle East has mined the cedar forests for everything from boats, buildings, railway lines, or just incinerated them for charcoal. It's hardly surprising that there aren’t many forests left.
It’s not clear just where the 'Cedar Forest' in the Epic of Gilgamesh was located. The Epic itself apparently says "Lebanon", but there are opinions that what this referred to may even have been Kashmir. However, the most famous grove of cedars remaining today is in central Lebanon. The tiny forest lies on the edge of the town of Bsharri, on the western slopes of the Lebanon Mountains. It's possible to fly into Beirut and get to the trees in the same day."
The deity, Enlil, did not approve of the slaying of Humbaba, but Gilgamesh was not punished. Enlil followed the death of the warden of the Cedar Forest by dispersing the Seven Terrors to different parts of the Earth:
"In the Epic of Gilgamesh (one of the earliest works of literature, dating to about 1800 BC), the 'Cedar Forest' is a central location. The heroes Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to the forest, where they kill its guardian, Humbaba. In celebration of getting rid of the guy who looked after the place, they cut down many cedars including one which was said to have been truly massive.
The tale is widely thought to be a memory of regional deforestation. In the several thousands of years since Gilgamesh and Enkidu's rampage, virtually every empire in the Mediterranean-Middle East has mined the cedar forests for everything from boats, buildings, railway lines, or just incinerated them for charcoal. It's hardly surprising that there aren’t many forests left.
It’s not clear just where the 'Cedar Forest' in the Epic of Gilgamesh was located. The Epic itself apparently says "Lebanon", but there are opinions that what this referred to may even have been Kashmir. However, the most famous grove of cedars remaining today is in central Lebanon. The tiny forest lies on the edge of the town of Bsharri, on the western slopes of the Lebanon Mountains. It's possible to fly into Beirut and get to the trees in the same day."
The deity, Enlil, did not approve of the slaying of Humbaba, but Gilgamesh was not punished. Enlil followed the death of the warden of the Cedar Forest by dispersing the Seven Terrors to different parts of the Earth:
He gave Ḫuwawa’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.
He gave his sixth aura to the forests.
He gave his seventh aura to Nungal. [1]
In his variant, Iblis hides within the serpent to safeguard paradise from humanity.
