View source for Cain and Abel

== Cultural portrayals and references ==
{{in popular culture|date=September 2016}}
* 1955: ''[[East of Eden (film)|East of Eden]]'' <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/16719/East-of-Eden/articles.html |title=Pop Culture 101: East of Eden |accessdate=2014-04-11|work=TCM.com}}</ref>
* 1966: ''[[The Bible: In the Beginning...]]''
* 2009: ''[[Year One (film)|Year One]]''
* 2011: [https://www.librarything.com/work/11040074/summary Wayward Son], written by Tom Pollack, posits a historical fiction narrative where Cain's curse includes immortality so that he may be redeemed thousands of years later.
* 2015: ''[[He Never Died]]''
*In the classic poem ''[[Beowulf]]'', the monstrous [[Grendel]] and [[Grendel's mother|his mother]] are said to be descended from Cain.<ref name="deVries76"/>
*[[Lord Byron]] rewrote and dramatized the story in the play ''[[Cain (play)|Cain]]'', viewing Cain as symbolic of a sanguinary temperament, provoked by Abel's hypocrisy and sanctimony<ref name="deVries76">{{cite book|last=de Vries|first=Ad|title= Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery|year=1976|page=75|publisher=North-Holland Publishing Company|location=Amsterdam|isbn= 0-7204-8021-3}}</ref>
* In [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy#Purgatorio|Purgatorio]]'' (early 14th century), Cain is remembered by the souls in [[Purgatory]] in Canto&nbsp;XIV (14)
* The expression "Cain-coloured beard" (Cain was traditionally considered to have red hair) is used in [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]'' (1602).<ref name="deVries76"/> 
* [[Baudelaire]] is more sympathetic to Cain in his poem "Abel et Caïn" in the collection ''[[Les Fleurs du mal]]'' (1857), where he depicts Cain as representing all the downtrodden people of the world. The poem's last lines exhort "Race de Caïn, au ciel monte / Et sur la terre jette Dieu!" ("Race of Cain, storm up the sky / And cast God down to Earth!").<ref>[http://fleursdumal.org/poem/190 Baudelaire's poem in French with English translations underneath]</ref>
* [[Victor Hugo]]'s poem "La conscience" (1853, tr. "Cain") collected in ''[[La Légende des siècles]]'' (1859, 1st series) has Cain for protagonist. It depicts the murderer fleeing with his children the gazing Eye of God until he has to seal himself down a vault, but in the famous last line, "The Eye was in the tomb and fixed on Cain."<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8775/8775-h/8775-h.htm#link2H_4_0134 "Cain"] (tr. ''[[Dublin University Magazine]]''), in ''Poems, by Victor Hugo, 1888'' at [[Project Gutenberg]]</ref> (tr. ''[[Dublin University Magazine]]'')
* [[Hermann Hesse]]'s novel ''[[Demian]]'' (1919) briefly discusses the story from an unorthodox point of view, where he also referred to the [[gnostic]] group called the [[Cainites]].
* [[Thornton Wilder]]'s play ''[[The Skin of Our Teeth]]'' (1942) states that Henry Antrobus' real name is Cain and he accidentally killed his brother Abel with a stone.
* [[John Steinbeck]]'s novel ''[[East of Eden (novel)|East of Eden]]'' (1952) describes the conflict between two brothers Cal and Aron which is based on the story of Cain and Abel.
* [[Jose Saramago]]'s last novel ''[[Cain (novel)|Cain]]'' (2009) is the story of Cain as a wanderer.
* In [[Jeffrey Archer]]'s novel ''[[Kane and Abel (novel)|Kane and Abel]]'' (1979) the title and story is a play on the biblical brothers.
* In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s graphic novel ''[[The Sandman (Vertigo)|The Sandman]]'' Cain appears as the careless older brother that kills his brother whenever he is unhappy and Abel appears paranoid and afraid at all times.
* The opera ''[[La mort d'Abel]]'' (1810) by [[Rodolphe Kreutzer]]
* Singer-songwriter [[Léo Ferré]] set [[Charles Baudelaire]]'s poem "Abel et Caïn" to music on ''[[Léo Ferré chante Baudelaire]]'' (1967)
* The [[Grateful Dead]]'s "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo" on ''[[Wake of the Flood]]'' (1973) suggests that "Cain caught Abel, rolling loaded dice"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://artsites.ucsc.edu/GDead/agdl/halfstep.html |title=The Annotated "Mississippi Halfstep Uptown Toodleloo" |publisher=Artsites.ucsc.edu |date= |accessdate=2015-12-17}}</ref>
* [[4&nbsp;Runner]]'s "[[Cain's Blood]]" (1995) uses Cain and Abel as a metaphor for the struggle between good and evil in the song's narrator<ref>{{cite book|last=Van Scott|first=Miriam|title=The Encyclopedia of Hell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jKcVBSUqdZoC&pg=PA74|year=1999|publisher=Macmillan|page=74|isbn=9780312244422}}</ref>
* [[Avenged Sevenfold]]'s song "Chapter Four" on ''Waking The Fallen'' (2003)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4616 |title=Chapter Four by Avenged Sevenfold Songfacts |publisher=Songfacts.com |date= |accessdate=2014-07-14}}</ref>
* "Daughters of Cain," the opening track of [[Yeasayer]]'s 2016 album ''[[Amen & Goodbye]]'' references Cain's children as well as the [[Genesis flood narrative]]<ref>http://www.transversomedia.com/articles/yeasayer-amen-goodbye-new-album-review</ref>