Abel’s funeral. An apocryphal motif in Russian iconography

Abstract

The author focuses on the visualization of the apocryphal legend of Abel’s funeral. The legend is based on a mythological motif about a bird that taught people to bury the dead in the ground. It is known in Jewish and Muslim literature in different versions and is widespread in the Near East, Asia, the Caucasus; its variations were also recorded in the Arctic. The story of a bird who buried another bird and taught Adam and Eve what to do with the dead, passed into Christian literature from the Jewish sources and appeared in various texts. It was included in the popular in Russia “Tolkovaya Paleya”, which said that the body of Abel remained incorruptible for 30 years, until two turtledoves sent by God flew to Adam and Eve – one died, and the second dug a hole and buried her. The whole story – the murder of Abel, the two birds and the funeral – was sometimes depicted in the iconography of the 17th century, also on the deacon doors of Russian iconostases. The author consideres the doors to the altar of the second half of the 17th century from the collection of the Pereslavl-Zalessky museum, where birds are not depicted, but the story is represented by three separate scenes.