Editing Mephistopheles (section)

==== Etymology and Name Meaning ====
The name ''Mephistopheles'' is a corrupted [[Greek language|Greek]] [[Compound (linguistics)|compound]].<ref name=":0">
{{cite book
 |last=Snider |first=Denton Jaques
 |year=1886
 |title=Goethe's Faust: A commentary
 |publisher=Sigma
 |pages=132–133
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=um8oAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA132
 |language=en
}}
</ref>
The Greek [[particle (linguistics)|particle]] of [[Affirmation and negation#Negation|negation]] (μή, ''mē'') and the Greek word for "[[philia|love]]" or "loving" (φίλος, ''philos'') are the first and last terms of the compound, but the middle term is more doubtful.

Three possible meanings have been proposed, and three different etymologies have been offered: 
*"not loving light" or "not a friend of light" <ref name=":3" />(φῶς, ''phōs''; the old form of the name being ''Mephostopheles'')
*"not loving Faust" or "not a friend of Faust"<ref name=":3" />
*''[[wikt:mephitic|mephitic]],'' pertaining to poisonous vapors arising from pools, caverns, and springs.<ref name=":0" />
Mephistopheles' name was possibly taken from the Hebrew words "mephiz", or destroyer, and "tophel", or slander. The name was invented for the historical [[alchemist]] [[Johann Georg Faust]] by the anonymous author of the first ''[[Faustbuch]]'' (published 1587).<ref name=":1" /> Mephistopheles was not previously part of the traditional magical or demonological lore. In the play, ''[[Doctor Faustus (play)|Doctor Faustus]]'' (1604)'','' created by Christopher Marlowe, Mephistopheles was written more as a fallen angel than as familiar demon. In the drama [[Faust]], written in two parts by J.W. von Goethe, Mephistopheles appears as cold-hearted, humorous, and ironic.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lackland |first=Caroline Eliot |date=1882 |title=Mephistopheles |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25667926 |journal=The Journal of Speculative Philosophy |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=320–329 |issn=0891-625X}}</ref>