Abstract
In the Passion of Andrew, part of the Acts of Andrew, which was first composed in the second or third century and enjoyed great popularity among Christians throughout the ancient Mediterranean from the third through the ninth centuries, pious Maximilla, determined to keep her body pure for Christ, enlists her slave woman Euklia into having sex with her snake of a pagan husband, Aigeates, so that she herself can avoid the “polluting defilement” of sex.¹ Euklia’s name ironically and euphemistically means “of good reputation,” and I translate it as “Miss Respectable.” Maximilla teaches Euklia to impersonate her in bed, thereby
