During the many centuries when European art dealt mostly with religious ideas, the story of Adam and Eve was a favorite subject. Among the famous images of the couple are the paintings in the Sistine Chapel in Rome by Italian artist Michelangelo. Completed in the early 1500s, they show the creation of Adam and Eve and the Fall. Another well-known painting of Adam and Eve comes from German artist Albrecht Durer, which was done in 1504. In general, artists of all periods have used fruit and snakes as symbols of temptation and evil.
Aside from the story of creation and the Fall in the book of Genesis, the Bible contains little information about Adam and Eve. Other writings, however, have added details to their story. One such work, the Life of Adam and Eve, was presented in the form of a biography. Written sometime between 20 bce and 70 ce, it provides an interesting account of the Fall and the sufferings of Adam and Eve after leaving Eden. The
Most famous literary treatment of the story of Adam and Eve is the book-length poem Paradise Lost, written by English poet John Milton and published in 1667.
Further modern interpretations of the Adam and Eve myth have also been created, which build upon popular knowledge of the original story. Eve’s Diary by Mark Twain, written in 1906, is a humorous retelling of the familiar events. Since the 1940s, numerous science fiction stories offered a new twist on the traditional tale, usually involving some type of disaster that wipes out the human race and a pair of survivors (sometimes actually named Adam and Eve) upon whom the fate of the species depends.
The story of Adam and Eve is the source of the common phrase “forbidden fruit”—referring to something that is tempting because one is not supposed to have it. Although there was plenty of other fruit she could have eaten in the garden, Eve chose the fruit from the tree of life specifically because God told her she could not have it.
World History
