Placements: The Geographical and Social Locations of the Mareotic Group

Abstract

AbstractIt is easy to configure the Mareotic group in the light of later Christian monasteries, and become blind to the evidence that Philo provides in his text. For Philo and for others in the Graeco-Roman world, the stories of Indian sages and Buddhist monks and nuns provided examples of those who lived a contemplative life. In early Christian monasticism, ascetics such as St Antony went far away from human society into the wilderness. Traditionally, in Theravada Buddhism, the sangha (the community of monks and nuns) has a special relationship with the wider Buddhist community, which supports those who live in the monastery: the wider community supplies the sangha with food, when the monks come to beg, and the sangha gives advice to the wider community. The location of a monastery is often right in the heart of a town. This chapter examines the geographical and social location of the group Philo describes in order to define more precisely how it might be placed in terms of the community from which it came.