This post is the second in our 2023 Halloween series: Bar Chaplain’s Guide to Demonology. For the introductory post, click here.

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase “Faustian bargain” to refer to a deal with disastrous consequences. The term has been applied to everything from sketchy political deals to ironclad recording contracts to Lando Calrissian’s ever-worsening arrangement with Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. It of course originates from the most famous person to have made a deal with a demon.

Around the turn of the 16th Century, there lived a German alchemist and astronomer named Johann Georg Faust who became the stuff of legend. While Faust had a number of publications and famous acts attributed to him, it was a rumor around the source of his power which forever captured the Western imagination. You see, Faust had supposedly made a deal with the demon Mephistopheles to gain powers and insight beyond that of normal humans. First published as an anonymous biography in 1587, this legend has been endlessly adapted into various media over the last five centuries.
While Marlowe’s Faust play came earlier, Goethe’s is arguably better known and featured a famous tragic romance. Both are mainstays of high school English syllabi.
Gounod’s Faust (itself an adaptation of Goethe’s play)is his best known opera.
Thomas Mann referenced the Faust legend in his novel about an ambitious composer.
A Faust-like narrative drives the action of The Devil and Daniel Webster.
Marvel Comics even features a demon named Mephisto (a nod to Faust’s demon) as the ruler of Hell, and the character is known for making manipulative deals with the Marvel universe’s superpowered characters.

There are literally countless adaptations of the tale, but my personal favorite involves a real historical figure from the Mississippi Delta. In the 1930s, the legendary traveling blues guitarist Robert Johnson recorded 29 songs (many of which became blues standards) before dying of unknown causes at age 27. (Sidebar: 27 is considered a sort of cursed age for celebrities with superstars like Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and countless others also meeting their demise at that age.) With his mysterious death, rumor circulated that Johnson had made a deal with the devil to attain musical stardom and that, with Johnson’s rising popularity, the devil had come to claim his soul. Adding to the mystique, Johnson’s music made regular reference to Hell and the devil, and he was known to practice in cemeteries since it was a quiet space. Johnson’s deal with the devil stands as a sort of archetype for a particular kind of Faustian bargain: meeting the devil at the crossroads. (Also, yes, all this was the inspiration for Tommy the guitarist’s plot line in the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?)

While the Greek goddess Hecate had a special connection to crossroads and dark magic, the more likely connection here is to a Voodoo Loa named Papa Legba, who serves as a sort of intermediary between humanity and spirits. Legba was said to manifest at crossroads in a variety of forms (though most commonly as a large black man) and make deals with passersby. This description fits perfectly with the Robert Johnson mythos, and many blues performers and historians connect Papa Legba with this style of music. As for the conflation of Legba with the devil, whole books (including my college advisor’s!) have been written about the cross-pollination between Christianity and Voodoo in the American South. So whether the entity is named as Legba or the devil, the premise is the same: if the legends are true, crossroads in the deep South may present infernal opportunity.

Whether it’s Faust or Robert Johnson or Marvel Comics, the trope of making a deal with the devil appears in countless traditions across the centuries. So the next time you read a Faust-like story or hear the phrase “Faustian bargain” or feel the urge to quicken your pace at a crossroads, know that there’s a long and rich history there.