Building off of the work done for my MA thesis, my research examines the role played by divine nursing scenes (depictions of a goddess nursing the king) in Ancient Egyptian temples and tombs from the Old Kingdom through the Greco-Roman period. As such, I am examining every known appearance of the motif both textually, art historically, and contextually in order to determine changes in the use of the scene over time and the role these scenes played in the decorative programs of tombs and temples, the ancient Egyptian ideology of kingship, and the role of women in religious and political spheres.
Divine breastfeeding connected the king directly to deity, providing him with legitimacy, power, and other divine attributes necessary for a successful reign through the breast milk of the goddess. Such scenes appear throughout Egyptian history and in many surviving Egyptian temples as well as in tombs, on temple stela, and as statues.