Fratricide

Cain kills Abel, a fratricide illustrated by Gustave Doré ("And Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.")[1]

Fratricide (from Latin fratricidium; from frater 'brother', and -cīdium 'killing' – the assimilated root of caedere 'to kill, cut down') is the act of killing one's own brother.

It can either be done directly or via the use of either a hired or an indoctrinated intermediary (an assassin). The victim need not be the perpetrator's biological brother. In a military context, fratricide refers to a service member killing a comrade.

The term is often used metaphorically to refer to civil wars.[2][3]

  1. ^ "Genesis 4:48". 21st Century King James Version. Retrieved 2009-04-07 – via BibleGateway.
  2. ^ Murrell Taylor, Amy (2009). The Divided Family in Civil War America. University of Carolina Press. p. 71.
  3. ^ McNelis, Charles (2007). Statius' Thebaid and the Poetics of Civil War. Cambridge University Press. p. 4.