There are two great temptation stories that have influenced the art, music, and literature of western culture. The first account is the ordeal of Jesus of Nazareth, tempted in the wilderness by the devil after his baptism and before the start of his public ministry. The second influential story is the tale of a German astrologer named Doctor Faustus who, when tempted by the devil, sold his soul for knowledge and power. That old theme goes all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden. That Faust died about 1540, having accumulated a scandalous theological reputation.
Millions still do.
The legend of Faust has inspired artists of all kinds. The seventeenth-century playwright Christopher Marlowe. Three centuries of puppet shows around the theme. The nineteenth-century poetry of Goethe. Berlioz and Gounod wrote operas.