Mazeppa is a proper name.  It was one of the great romantic subjects,
a legend of someone whose romantic indiscretions caused him to be
strapped naked to a wild horse that was set loose.  The name is that
of a famous 17th century Ukrainian leader, Ivan Mazepa in modern
orthography, to whom sadly nothing of the sort happened.  Apparently
the legend arose from the writings of his contemporary, Jan Pasek,
first found in the late 18th century and published in 1821.

Still, when has a good story been held back by the facts?  It ticked
all the romantic boxes about love and wild nature -- Lord Byron wrote
a poem of that name in 1817, Victor Hugo did likewise in 1828, Liszt
gave the name to a piano piece from his Transcendental Etudes in 1847
and followed with an orchestral work, Balfe so named a cantata in 1862,
Tchaikovsky wrote an opera in 1884 -- so Wollenhaupt was in good
company.  There were many others.

The Liszt piece was widely recorded on piano roll, and is well worth
looking out for if you want something to give your piano a real
workout!

Julian Dyer