Adam hoeing and Eve spinning; Adam on his deathbed dispatching Seth; Seth at the gate of Paradise

According to Genesis, after Adam and Eve had been cast out of Eden, Adam was assigned a specific task — agricultural labour — but no particular job, other than bearing children, was allocated to Eve. Nevertheless, as early as the 5th century, Eve is shown spinning while Adam digs, and the motif became standard by the 12th century. The scenes showing Adam and Eve’s son, Seth, are not based on the Bible, but derive from Arnoul Gréban’s Mystère de la Passion, a religious play performed in Paris in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.