# Shoulder Angels/Devils
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoulder-angels-devils/141344
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 8, 2002, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoulder-angels-devils/141344 "2002-12-08T19:29:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@TheRochester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheRochester)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2002, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoulder-angels-devils/141344/1 "2002-12-08T19:29:02Z")
I need to know about that staple of Saturday morning cartoons; the representation of the eternal battle of good and evil that lives in our heads: The Shoulder Angel and Shoulder Devil.
When and where did they first appear?
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### Author:  [@Garnet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garnet)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2002, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoulder-angels-devils/141344/2 "2002-12-09T01:01:29Z")
Well, this isn’t exactly a case of “shoulder” angels/devils, but there’s an instance of something similar in Christopher Marlowe’s play “Doctor Faustus”, from 1604. In the play, Faustus sells his soul to the devil, and he’s visited on a couple of occasions by a “Good Angel” and “Evil Angel” who give him their advice.
> [@](#):
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> Good Angel: Sweet Faustus, think of heaven and heavenly things.
> Evil Angel: No, Faustus: think of honour and of wealth.
Of course, Marlowe’s play didn’t originate the Faust legend, but I don’t know whether he invented the angels for his play or not.
I don’t know whether the Saturday morning version of this was inspired by those scenes or not, but this shows that at least the general idea has been around for a few hundred years.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2002, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoulder-angels-devils/141344/3 "2002-12-09T02:07:59Z")
The idea of a devil on your left shoulder and an angel on your right has fairly established roots.
The superstition of throwing salt over your left shoulder to ward off bad luck was based on that it would blind the devil.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2002, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoulder-angels-devils/141344/4 "2002-12-09T02:22:15Z")
Sorry, submitted early:
Uh, some cites, I guess.
[Islam](http://www.peopleteams.org/palestinians/profile%202.htm)
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> Each person has two guardian angels. One sits on his right shoulder and records all the good things (Hasanaat) the person does. The other angel sits on the left shoulder and keeps account of the bad things (sayi’aat) a person does. There are 3 other gradations of actions that range from commendable, through neutral, to reprehensible.
[Serbian Folklore](http://www.nasasrbija.co.yu/kafana/t_sto5_1.htm)
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> Our ancestors believed that there was a strict division between the left and the right side, with the left side being bad and the right side good. On the left shoulder of every man sits the Devil and urges him towards evil, on the right shoulder there is a guardian angel which delivers him from all evil and urges him to perform good deeds.
[The salt thing](http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A254468)
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> Throwing salt other your left shoulder after spilling some. Apparently a devil is sitting on your left shoulder, and the force of the tiny salt particles knock him off and he lands in a little heap on the floor. Then you should stamp on him.
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### Author:  [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2002, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoulder-angels-devils/141344/5 "2002-12-09T03:29:06Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Garnet \*
> \*\*Of course, Marlowe’s play didn’t originate the Faust legend, but I don’t know whether he invented the angels for his play or not.
> \*\*
Marlowe incorporated some of the traditions of medieval drama, particularly the morality play, in _Doctor Faustus_ – that’s where you get things like the pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins, and the good and bad angels. The mankind character in [_The Castle of Perseverance_](http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~ajohnsto/cascomp.html) (or go [here](http://www.umm.maine.edu/faculty/necastro/drama/Castle_Basic.txt) if you want the original Middle English) is equipped with similar angels. This is probably the most direct ancestor of the Saturday-morning-cartoon angels.
BTW, _Faustus_ was published in 1604, but it was written earlier – around 1590 or a little before. (My edition says 1588-9).