Abel (Son of Adam)

For other uses, see Abel (disambiguation)
Abel was one of the sons of Adam and Eve.de Plancy, J. C., (1863). Dictionnaire Infernal. 6ed. pg.2
== Legends ==
According to medieval doctors from Damascus, Abel was forty-eight feet tall, since a mound called the Tomb of Abel is fifty-five feet long. 
In the rabbinic traditions, he wrote the Liber de virtutibus planetarum et de omnibus rerum mundanarum virtulibus, a book of judicial astrology revealed to him by heaven. Abel is said to have enclosed this volume within a rock and, after the flood, Hermes Trismegistus is said to have found it and learned the art of making talismans under the influence of the constellations from it. 
According to the Hebrew and Muslim traditions, Cain and Abel each had a twin sister, and Adam and Eve intended for each brother to marry the other's twin. Cain's twin was the more attractive of the sisters, so he balked when told to marry Abel's twin. This, along with God favouring Abel's sacrifice of the best of his flock over Cain's sacrifice of a poor sheath and the remains of a meal, led Cain to decide to murder Abel by throwing rocks at him until he hit his neck and killed him, since he didn't know what it would take to kill someone. Cain then buried the body to hide it, and so God cursed the Earth for accepting the corpse.Unknown. (1972). "Abel", in Leach, M. (ed) Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend. 3rd ed. p.4
Other traditions say that Cain didn't know how to get rid of the corpse and carried it on his back until he saw one bird burying another, inspiring him to do the same.
A version recounted in the kabbalistic text Book of the Penitence of Adam claims that Cain and Abel both killed each other.Spence, L. (1920). An Encyclopædia of Occultism. 2 ed. pg. 2-3
== Works ==
* Liber de virtutibus planetarum et de omnibus rerum mundanarum virtulibus
== Further Reading ==
* Book of Genesis
* Legends of the Old Testament
== References ==
Category:Dictionnaire Infernal
Category:Authors
Category:Giants
Category:Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend
Category:An Encyclopædia of Occultism