Dossiers

Pazuzu: The Mesopotamian Demon of Destruction and Protection

Pazuzu is a Babylonian/Assyrian demon who was most popular in the first millennium BCE. He was the son of Hanbi (also Hanba), king of the demons of the underworld, and brother of Humbaba, the demon-god protector of the cedar forest in The Epic of Gilgamesh, who is killed by the heroes. He was…

Pazuzu's dual role as destroyer and protector in first-millennium Mesopotamia reveals the structural logic of apotropaic demons — a pattern that recurs across unconnected cultures and invites questions about shared symbolic inheritance.
Pazuzu: The Mesopotamian Demon of Destruction and Protection
Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Pazuzu/

Original author: Joshua J. Mark

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mesopotamia

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