The enigmatic Coptic Galaktotrophousa and the cult of the Virgin Mary in Egypt

Abstract

Images of the Virgin Mary nursing Jesus have been a minor but persistent subject in Christian art.2 Called the Galaktotrophousa, or ‘she who nourishes with milk’ in the eastern Christian tradition, examples appear throughout the mediaeval world, as Late Antique Coptic secco paintings (Plate 1, Figs 2.1-2.2), post-Byzantine Cretan icons, thirteenth-century Armenian manuscript illuminations and a German statuette of c. 1300, to name only a few. The earliest significant body of representations of this subject comes from Late Antique Egypt.3 Among these we have established contexts only for the wall paintings, which were intended for an audience of monks.

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