Wet Nurse in art in Graeco-Roman Egypt

Abstract

The wet nurse is a woman employed to breast-feed another woman's baby other than her own, for certain salary. This profession was very important to most of the ancient families in Egypt, especially in Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman Egypt. Most of the information about wet nurses is sourced from the reliefs shown on the walls of the temples and tombs, minor art exhibited in the galleries of the different museums, and from the contracts mentioned in the ancient papyrus especially the Oxyrhynchuspapyri. Wet nurse in Pharaonic Egypt has very essential role, either in divinity or in social society. She is very important for the king to insure his royal rights. Private wet nurses are also used among the upper classes; they are also depicted on the walls of tombs, showing signs of love to their owners. Many details were given about wet nurses and wet nursing as an important profession in Egypt during the Greek and Roman times. This section of the study depends on contracts preserved in the ancient papyrus that provides us with a lot of information about this profession, also the physician Soranus was one of the most interested Greek doctor, who gives many details about wet nurses. The paper is supported by a catalogue of the representation of wet nurses in Greek and Roman Egyptian art. It deals with Divine Wet nurse in Greek and Roman Egypt, especially Hathor and Isis. The representations of divine wet nurses in temples' relief as Dendra, Edfu, Philae and Armant. And in minor art.