Iwia is the gigantic man-eating ogre of Shuar and Achuar myth, a voracious cannibal who roams the forest seizing human beings, stuffing them into his great net-bag, and devouring them. He is the antagonist of the Etsa cycle: having eaten Etsa's parents, he kept the boy as a captive hunter to supply him with birds, until Etsa learned the truth, restored the game he had been forced to kill, and brought about the ogre's death. The name is linked to the wider Jivaroan term iwianch for malevolent forest-demons and ghosts, but Iwia in the myths is a distinct, individuated monstrous personage.