Pazuzu

Pazuzu is the best-known Mesopotamian demon in the modern world for reasons that have nothing to do with Mesopotamia, and the actual figure is more interesting than the film. He is the king of the wind demons, son of Hanbi and brother of Humbaba, and the wind he brings is the southwestern one that carries fever and dries the fields. He was worn anyway — bronze heads with a loop at the back, hung around the neck of a pregnant woman or set by a cradle — on the logic that the thing that frightens you is also the thing that frightens what you are afraid of. His head sits at the top of the Lamashtu plaques, looking over the edge at her. The first millennium made a whole household practice out of this, none of it temple cult.

Parentage

• parent: Hanbi

Domains

• wind
• protection

Relations

• sibling: HumbabaBrother of Humbaba, both sons of Hanbi, king of the demons of the underworld, who is added in this same pass on the strength of the amulet inscription that names him.Reference treatment of Pazuzu as the brother of Humbaba, the guardian of the Cedar Forest, both sons of Hanbi. (secondary)
• enemy: LamashtuSet against Lamashtu on the amulets, and said in one account to have driven her back to the underworld.Reference treatment of Pazuzu as the demon invoked against Lamashtu on amulets protecting mothers and infants. (secondary)

Sources

• Pazuzu is the king of the demons of the wind, son of Hanbi and brother of Humbaba, bearer of the southwestern wind, invoked apotropaically in the first millennium BCE against other demons and especially against Lamashtu.: Reference treatments of Pazuzu: his parentage and brother, his wind, his iconography and his apotropaic use on amulets. (secondary)