r sex. From India monachism
passed into all the lands that were occupied by Buddhism.

+1123+. In Egypt under the Ptolemies there arose a sort of monastic
life: after the cult of Sarapis was established men wishing to devote
themselves to religious meditation would go to the Sarapeum and shut
themselves up in cells.[2066] It is, however, not clear that there was
an organization or any sort of communal life in connection with these
gatherings. There is no evidence of foreign influence beyond a possible
suggestion from the fact that Sarapis was a foreign deity and his cult
may have imported foreign ideas into Egypt; but he was completely
domiciled in his new abode, was identified by the Greeks with their Zeus
and by the Egyptians (by a popular etymology) with their Osir-Apis;
there was nothing foreign in his cult, and the claim, sometimes made,
for Buddhistic influence (through embassies sent by Asoka to Greek
kings) has no definite historical foundation.[2067] Possibly Greek
(Pythagorean) influence is to be recognized,[2068] but it cannot be
considered strange that a practice of this sort should arise
independently in Egypt at a time when a practical monolatry with a good
ethical conception of the deity might dispose some men to solitary
reflection.

+1124+. The Egyptian Therapeutae, the "Servants" of God, described by
Philo,[2069] resemble these Sarapis monks in certain respects,
particularly in their habit of contemplation. Their kernel, however, was
Jewish--they had the Jewish Scriptures and observed the seventh day of
the week. On this Jewish substratum was imposed Greek thought; they
adopted the Alexandrian allegorizing interpretation of the Scriptures,
and Philo includes them in that group of persons who found it desirable
to withdraw from the common life of men in order to cultivate
philosophical and ethical thought. Six days they lived each by himself;
on the seventh day they came together for a religious service. Women as
well as men were admitted into the association, but the place of general
meeting had two divisions, one for men, the other for women. The date of
the rise of the sect is uncertain, but it must probably be put in the
Ptolemaic period. Their monastic organization must be referred to some
current practice, Greek or Egyptian, or to a blending of various lines;
the details of their history are too sparse to build on with
definiteness.

+1125+. The similar sect of the Essenes, or Essaei, which was