Mephistopheles in popular culture

This article lists cultural references to Mephistopheles, the fictional devil from Faust and Doctor Faustus who has been used in other pieces of literature, film, comics and music.

Drama

• 1604 - Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Opera

• 1846 - Mephistopheles appears in the "Légende dramatique" entitled The Damnation of Faust (La Damnation de Faust) by Hector Berlioz.
• 1859 - Charles Gounod's Faust
• 1868 - March 5, Milan; Arrigo Boito's opera Mefistofele premieres.

Music

• Mephisto is mentioned in the song "If You Want A Receipt For That Popular Mystery" sung by Colonel Calverley in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Patience, in the lyric 'Force of Mephisto pronouncing a ban'.^[1]
• Satanic death metal band Deicide wrote a song "Mephistopheles" for their first album.
• Dimmu Borgir, a Norwegian black metal band, has a song entitled "The Maelstrom Mephisto". Their vocalist, Shagrath also features in the song and video for Kamelot's March of Mephisto, in which he performs the role of Mephisto.
• The concept album Epica by progressive metal band Kamelot tells the story of Faust, which is continued by its sequel, The Black Halo. The Black Halo also features the single March of Mephisto, with Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir performing the death metal vocals of Mephisto.
• Mephistopheles's Song in Auerbach's Cellar, more commonly known as "The Song of the Flea", was composed by Mussorgsky in 1879.
• Marilyn Manson, has a song entitled "Mephistopheles of Los Angeles", from the album The Pale Emperor (2015).^[2]
• Mephistopheles is mentioned in the song Videotape by Radiohead, the final track from their In Rainbows album. In the lyric 'When Mephistopheles is just beneath, And he's reaching up to grab me'

Film

• In the 1981 movie Mephisto, which won an Oscar in 1982 for Best Foreign Film, actor Klaus Maria Brandauer plays a German stage actor whose abiding ambition is to play Mephistopheles on the stage - but in order to achieve it, he "sells his soul" to the Nazi regime and in effect becomes Faust in real life.

Comics

• Mephisto (comics) is a character who acts as a possible version of the devil in the Marvel Universe. Among other feats, he is responsible for turning Johnny Blaze into the Ghost Rider, fathers Satana, Daimon Hellstrom and Blackheart, and imprisons the soul of Doctor Doom's mother. More recently, Mephisto played a large part in the One More Day storyline, in which he erased Spider-Man's marriage to Mary Jane Watson in exchange for saving the life of his Aunt May.

Literature

• In Goethe's Faust Mephisto is the personified principle of negation, betting with god that he would succeed to make Faust turn away from god.
• In Jack Faust by Michael Swanwick, the book's main character, Johannes Faustus, gives himself up for knowledge of the truth, becoming Jack Faust, led by the alien being Mephistopheles.
• In We (novel)by Yevgeny Zamyatin, their is a rebellious organization, called The Mephi who plan to take down One State.

See also

• Deals with the Devil in popular culture

References