Laudator Temporis Acti

David E. Aune, commentary on Revelation 3.20:

A πάρεδρος δαίμων is a deity, usually minor, which a magician secured as a lifelong companion and servant who could provide him with a variety of services. PGM I.96-131 contains a lengthy list of such services:

If you give him a command, straightway he performs the task: he sends dreams, he brings women, men without the use of magical material, he kills, he destroys, he stirs up winds from the earth, he carries gold, silver, bronze, and gives them to you whenever the need arises. And he frees from bonds a person chained in prison, he opens doors, he causes invisibility so that no one can see you at all, he is a bringer of fire, he brings water, wine, bread and [whatever] you wish in the way of foods.

PGM = Papyri Graecae Magicae. Only I.98-104 is quoted. Here is the Greek:

ἐὰν ἐπιτάξῃς, παραυτὰ τὸ ἔργον ἐπιτελεῖ· ὀνειροποµπεῖ, ἄγει γυναῖκας, ἄνδρας δίχα οὐσίας, ἀναιρεῖ, καταστρέφει, ἀναρίπτει ἀνέµους ἐκ γῆς, βαστάζει χρυσόν, ἄργυρον, χαλκόν, καὶ δίδωσί σοι, ὅταν χρεία γένηται, λύει δὲ ἐκ δεσµῶν ἀλύσεσι φρουρούµενον, θύρας ἀνοίγει, ἀµαυροῖ, ἵνα µηδεὶς [κ]αθόλου σε θεωρήσῃ, πυρφορεῖ, ὕδωρ φέρει, οἶνον, ἄρτον καὶ [ὃ] ἂν ἐθέλῃς ἐκ τῶν ἐδεσµάτων...

Mephistopheles in the Faust legend would seem to be a kind of πάρεδρος δαίμων.