Describe symbolism in The Beautiful Side of Evil by Johanna Michaelsen

Tiresias and Mephistopheles are the names of two statues owned by the author during her college years. Tiresias (named after the blind prophet in Classical Greek mythology) is, for her, a symbol of spiritual awareness and insight - it is he, according to the author, who brings a mysterious second language into her awareness. Mephistopheles (one of several names given to Satan) was a joking gift from the author's mother, given in reference to the old saying "He must needs go whom the devil driveth" (itself a reference to intense human passion and desire - in giving the gift, the author's mother is commenting on the author's determination to pursue theatre). The author eventually comes to see both as evidence of satanic influence in her life. There is perhaps an echo here of the inference throughout the book that as well meaning as they seemed to be, the author's parents were in fact unwitting instruments of their daughter's descent into the occult and its Satanic practices.