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Translated from the German by Marvin W. Webb, EdD., member of the executive committee of the Internationale Forschungsgemeinschaft fur Schicksalspsychologie and co-author of The Szondi Test.
Thanatos has several meanings in classical Greek: (1) natural death, (2) violent death or assault and murder, (3) mortal peril, (4) indictment for assault and murder, (5) death penalty and hanging, (6) corpse. In short, all passive and active, subjective and objective relationships of man to death were expressed by the word thanatos (Pape, p. 1073).
Cain, according to Biblical legend, was the first man begotten by man and born of woman. He became the slayer of his brother, Abel.
The philological derivation of the name Cain is still a subject of dispute among philologists and theologians. According to the Hebraic and Aramaic Lexicon, by Gesenius, the word Cain in Aramaic signifies lance and sword (p. 712). Other authorities trace it to the Hebraic word Kana. It means: (1) founded, produced (by God), (2) metaphorically created (by God) (Gesenius, p. 717).
In Genesis, Chapter 4, Verse 1, we read: “The man recognized his wife, Chawwa (Eva). She was pregnant and delivered Cain. Then she said: “I have acquired a man through God.” Several authors insist that the name Cain derives from the verb kana—to acquire and signifying possession (De-litzsch, p. 147; Vischer, p. 41; Speier, p. 244).
But Cain is also the tribal name of the Canaanites (Gesenius, p. 712). Vischer writes: “The identification of the tribal name Cain in Israeli history, and Cain in Genesis, is of decisive significance and supports the Canaanite hypothesis.” Vischer also mentions that Cain signified smith in Aramaic