I also remember my absolute delight in the fact that I had grown it. The name means just not white, but dazzling white. It has probably been cultivated longer than any other lily. It can be traced back to Minoan civilization, about 1500BC, in Crete. Things begin to add up.
Images certainly appear in early Egyptian and Assyrian art.
Not to mention Dutch and Flemish Renaissance flower painting. I loved reading LiLy Ponds 1. I was unwilling to be disentangled. The Madonna lily came to London with the Romans. They travelled always in tandem.