Quote:
Originally Posted by DoTheMath
Definitely not the first. Early nineteenth century violinist Niccolo Paganini was said to have sold his soul to the Devil. In fact the rumour seems to have resulted in some difficulty in getting church approval for his burial.
I would suspect, theoretically, that through history any person who had freakish talent might be suspected of being in league with whatever devil-like entity propagated evil in whatever culture. In my model of how the social world works, mythology evolves as guidance toward the better or more efficient way of doing things. Morals/ethics work to in tandem with mythology achieve better social conditions, but those who cheat can often exploit those faithfully executing morality and get ahead unfairly. Thus anyone too far ahead will be looked at with suspicion of subverting that cultures morals/ethics and be in league with the "devil".