Another of mine image with god, angel or devil character this is the time of the one of the seven duke of the hell .-) kisses and Happy easter Orietta Mephistopheles flying over Wittenberg, in a lithograph by Eugène Delacroix. Mephistopheles (also Mephistophilus, Mephistophilis, Mephostopheles, Mephisto and variants) is one of the seven princes of Hell. Originally appearing in literature as the name of the demon in the Faust legend, he has The name is associated with the Faust legend of a scholar who wagers his soul against the Devil being able to make Faust wish to live, even for a moment, based on the historical Johann Georg Faust. The name appears in the late 16th century Faust chapbooks. In the 1725 version which was read by Goethe, Mephostophiles is a Devil in the form of a greyfriar summoned by Faust in a wood outside Wittenberg. The name Mephistophiles already appears in the 1527 Praxis Magia Faustiana, printed in Passau, alongside pseudo-Hebrew text. It is best explained as a purposely obscure pseudo-Greek or pseudo-Hebrew formation of Renaissance magic. MEPHISTO_PHILES in the 1527 Praxis Magia Faustiana, attributed to Faust. From the chapbook, the name enters Faustian literature and is also used by authors from Marlowe down to Goethe. In the 1616 edition of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Mephostophiles became Mephistophilis. Jeffrey Burton Russell speculates on Greek elements that may have played a part in the coining of the name, including Greek m� "not", ph�s "light" and philos "lover", suggesting "not a lover of light" in parody of Lucifer ("light-bearer", a common epithet of Satan); in that case, the change from the presumed original mephoto- to mephist- may be due to a suggestion of the Latin mephitis ("a noxious exhalation from the ground; malaria"). Another possibility is a combination of the Hebrew words mephiz ("liar") and tophel ("destroyer"). Mephistopheles in later treatments of the Faust material frequently figures as a title character: in Meyer Lutz' Mephistopheles, or Faust and Marguerite (1855), Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele (1868), Klaus Mann's Mephisto, and Franz Liszt's Mephisto Waltzes Shakespeare mentions "Mephistophilus" in the Merry Wives of Windsor (Act1, Sc1, line 128), and by the 17th century, the name had begun to lead an existence independent of the Faust legend. Burton Russell finds, "That the name is a purely modern invention of uncertain origins makes it an elegant symbol of the modern Devil with his many novel and diverse forms." Although Mephistopheles appears to Faustus as a devil � a worker of Satan � critics claim that he does not search for men to corrupt but come to serve and ultimately collect the souls of those who are already damned. Farnham explains, "Nor does Mephistophiles first appear to Faustus as a devil who walks up and down in earth to tempt and corrupt any man encountered. He appears because he senses in Faustus� magical summons that Faustus is already corrupt, that indeed he is already 'in danger to be damned'." Mephistopheles is already trapped in his own hell by serving the Devil. He warns Faustus of the choice he is making by �selling his soul� to the Devil: �Mephistophilis, an agent of Lucifer, appears and at first advises Faust not to forgo the promise of heaven to pursue his goals�. Farnham adds to his theory, ��[Faustus] enters an ever-present private hell like that of Mephistophiles�.