CAINO (Hebr. Qajin = Ar. qajn, “smith,” a name connected in Gen. 4:1, by popular etymology, with qānāh, “to possess”). — First son of Adam and Eve, brother of Abel (v.); the rabbinic opinion that regards them as twins is unfounded. Through hatred and fratricide, he is the first embodiment of the moral disorder deriving from Adam’s sin. Offering with a narrow and faithless spirit (Hebr. 11:4) the produce of the agriculture to which he had devoted himself, he saw his gifts rejected by God, unlike the acceptable sacrifices of lambs offered by his brother the shepherd. Hence the threatening anger of the wicked C., who was plotting the murder of the righteous Abel. God, speaking to his conscience, invited him (in the somewhat enigmatic passage of Gen. 4:6 ff.) to resist, by doing good, the evil demon desirous of taking possession of him: “If you do well, are you not superior to the Evil One? But if you do evil, does the Demon not sit at the door? He strives to conquer you, but you must dominate him.” Yet, as the Apostle comments (I John 3:12), C., moved “by the Evil One, killed (ἔσφαξεν, ‘slaughtered’) his brother” after inviting him into the open country, and arrogantly replied to God, who asked him to account for the murdered man, that he was not his keeper. But because of “the voice of Abel’s blood,” crying out for justice, God cursed C., foretelling the future barrenness of the earth, steeped in fraternal blood, for him as a fugitive and wanderer. Then, awakened to awareness of his crime and fearing the harsh law of retaliation, C. obtained from God—merciful even in his anger—the promulgation of a sevenfold penalty for whoever should kill him, and a premonitory sign of his non-violent end.
It is erroneous, with the rabbis, to see in the “sign” a horn, leprosy, a tremor, a face terribly contorted by remorse, or a tattoo intended to make him recognizable and spare him by strangers who might encounter him in the region of Nod, west of Eden, where he had fled.
For archaeology, V. ABELE.
BIBL.: A. Schultz, Zu Gen. 4, 7-8, in Theologie und Glaube, 1930, pp. 502-505; W. Stodert, Der Brüderwörder Kain, in Zeitenwächter, 1930, pp. 132-39; G. Closen, Der « Dämon Sünde » (Gen. 4, 7), in Biblica, 16 (1935), pp. 431-42; C. F. Jean, Le « démon de la porte », dans un verset de Genèse, in Revue apologétique, 62 (1936, II), pp. 113-17; F. Salvoni, Il monito del Signore a C. (Gen. 4, 7), in La Scuola Cattolica, 72 (1944), pp. 23-39. Faustino Salvoni
FOLKLORE. – A very widespread and ancient popular tradition, also recalled twice by Dante (Inf., XX, 126, and Par., II, 50), sees in the spots of the moon the image of C. The details of the interpretation vary somewhat, however. Some see in them C. raising a forked branch of thorns, or being forced to carry a bundle of thorns on his shoulders; others, C. standing, as Dante’s commentator Buti says, « in su uno fascio di pruni ». There are likewise variants in the legends that seek to explain this manner in which the people interpreted the lunar spots. An Abruzzese legend relates that C., having committed fratricide, hid himself, but was condemned by God to remain on the moon, precisely so that everyone might see him; nor did it help him to carry with him a large thorn branch, which cannot hide him completely. Another, much more widespread but also more complicated, tells how, after killing Abel, C., having become fearful, piled up brambles around the cave where he lived, to protect himself from wild beasts. «You are doing well,» God replied, «because the thorns will serve to crown my son.» When C. later died, the devils hastened to drag him to hell, but he invoked God and reminded him of the praise he had received for planting the brambles. Then the Lord, so as not to contradict himself, ordered that during the day C. should remain in hell, but at night go to the moon to watch over the thorns; thus he is seen with the fork raised in the air, full of brambles. In Friuli they even see C. killing Abel.
BIBL.: S. Prato, C. e le spine secondo Dante e la tradizione popolare, Ancona 1881; G. Finamore, Credenze, usi e costumi abruzzesi, Palermo 1890; G. Pitrè, Usi e costumi, credenze e pregiudizi, III, there 1889; V.
OSTRIANO, La vita in Friuli, 2nd ed., edited by G. Vidossi, Udine 1940.
Paolo Toschi
