I think the two choices that Aziraphale offers to Crowley are incredibly fascinating and revealing and I have not yet been able to stop thinking about it.
First, Aziraphale floats Mephistopheles, the demon in the Faust legend that brokers souls and deals as an agent for the Devil. It’s fascinating to look at, to draw a few slight parallels. If we consider that Aziraphale is already realizing the nature of his desire for knowledge and experience (and how he feels for Crowley), we can parallel it slightly with Faust’s similar desires for knowledge. You see, while Faust was grappling with his wants, an elegant demon named Mephistopheles appeared to him.
In the stories, Mephistopheles has always been more human-looking and attractive than the other demons of Hell. In classical depictions, he’s usually dark-haired and pale, with pointed or sharp features. Angular, edgy. Dressed in black or red. In most versions, Mephistopheles is a fascinating creature because he doesn’t attempt to tempt Faust, instead, he had simply happened to be passing by when he had felt that Faust was already on the verge of ruin. He instead chooses to warn Faust of the nature of Hell, describing his own personal Hell that he exists within. He never appears to enjoy his work (he’s a bit of a terrible demon there).
Faust and Mephistopheles eventually strike a deal where Faust is given all the knowledge and pleasure that he can absorb for the next twenty-four years before ultimately falling to Hell. There’s a key difference in a few of the stories. Marlowe’s version (Doctor Faustus) has Mephistopheles as incredibly reluctant to make the deal. He squirms against it, clearly finding it unpleasant. It had been Faust’s idea and he finally, due to what he is and what he must be, grudgingly accepts. (It’s a bit different later, once Goethe gets ahold of the legend and writes Mephistopheles as having come up with the deal and as far more keen to accept.)
Let’s look back. Look back at an angel that cannot keep his too-curious hands off of pleasure and experience. Who wants to experience everything, eat everything, drink everything, read everything. He squirrels away books and refuses to sell them, devours prophecies for breakfast. And then there is an elegant demon in black, not quite tempting, never wiling, but always there. Always present. His very presence is so much, as it is in the Faust story. He’s a warning and strangely elegant and compassionate. Yet also his every existence is a temptation, simply because of what he can offer.
For Faust, it had been human knowledge and pleasure. Experience too. For Aziraphale, it’s the sheer nature of his growing feelings for Crowley. To Aziraphale, especially here at Golgotha, to admit anything of that or to process these feelings for a demon is to be damned. To be cast out, to Fall to Hell. He is incredibly and uncomfortably aware.
It will take millennia before he learns otherwise.
As for Asmodeus, I’ve seen it touched on before, but he is one of the Seven Princes of Hell. Each of the Seven Princes represents one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
I think it should come as no surprise that Asmodeus represents lust.
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