Cain was the eldest son of Adam and Eve in the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible. According to the story in Genesis, Cain became angry when the Lord liked his brother Abel’s sacrifice of sheep better than Cain’s sacrifice of “the fruit of the ground.” He killed Abel. After the Lord asked Cain where Abel was, Cain made the famous remark: “I know not: am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4:9). To punish Cain, the Lord sent him away to be a wanderer. Cain feared he would be killed, so the Lord placed a mark on him and commanded that no one harm him. Parallels to the story of Cain and Abel are found in a much earlier Sumerian story in which a farmer (Enkimdu) and a shepherd (Dumuzi) compete for the love of the fertility goddess Inanna.
