Christian sect in the primitive church, who celebrated the eucharist with bread and cheese, saying that the first oblations of men were not only of the fruits of the earth, but of their flocks. The word is derived from αρτος, bread, and ρυζος, cheese. The Artotyrites admitted women to the priesthood and episcopacy; and Epiphanius tells us it was a common thing to see seven girls at once enter into their church, robed in white and holding a torch in their hand, where they wept and bewailed the wretchedness of human nature and the miseries of this life.