Adam and Evel: Did Satan Sleep with Eve in the Greek and Latin Lives of Adam and Eve?

Abstract

Abstract A variety of ancient Jewish and Christian sources refer to a sexual liaison between Satan and Eve, a union that resulted in the birth of Cain. This article assembles these texts, and then considers whether the Greek and Latin Lives of Adam and Eve are also aware of this union, and whether these texts have been influenced by the tradition of the Watchers sleeping with the daughters of men. While scholars have been divided on these issues for the last century, this article determines that the Greek Life does not allude or refer to any sexual liaison. The Latin Vita (perhaps in dependence on a different archetype) could allow for the notion, but it is only Latin P that uses language pointing to a literal sexual union. These findings suggest that the Greek and Latin lives did not originally contain a sexual seduction of Eve by the devil. It was only latterly that the narratives were influenced by the Watchers’ narrative or attempts to account for Cain’s maleficent nature.