Mephistopheles is associated with the Faust legend, based on the historical Johann Georg Faust. In the legend, Faust, an ambitious scholar, makes a deal with the Devil at the price of his soul, with Mephistopheles acting as the devil’s agent. The legend has come to symbolize the consequences of what happens when the quest for empowerment and realization escape the “intellectual and moral restrictions of the Christian medieval order.”
Alias Mephisto
Real Names/Alt Names Mephistopheles, Mephostophilis
First Appearance Historia von D. Johann Fausten (1587)
First Publisher Johann Spies
Appearance List Historia von D. Johann Fausten, the first “Faust book” chapbook (1587), The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1594) by Christopher Marlowe, Faust (play, 1790) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust (1926 film), Faust (1995 opera), etc.
Description Mephistopheles is associated with the Faust legend, based on the historical Johann Georg Faust. In the legend, Faust, an ambitious scholar, makes a deal with the Devil at the price of his soul, with Mephistopheles acting as the devil’s agent. The legend has come to symbolize the consequences of what happens when the quest for empowerment and realization escape the “intellectual and moral restrictions of the Christian medieval order.”
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