Failed
try, older and my own.
A
Christos stripped of his loincloth is basically a fleeing
Therapeut. Lost his
exomis, maybe? Problem: 'when your guru is gone' the cover's blown.
In Egypt during this period, a statue of the 'Young God' (ἄγαλμα νεανίσκος) was called an "Apollonius." At
Pelusium in the Jewish Siriad, very recent archaeological evidence attests to this fact:
Dioscasius Dios Apollonius = "God of Kasios, God Apollonius". So an
Apollonius (even from ample literary evidence) was naturally an ephebos, the young god idealized as a nude adolescent in the 1st C. (This is likewise the Jewish Hadad-rimmon/Baal-Rimmon: ancient Semitic
Adon of Palestine and Syria.) I would also note that a νεανίσκος was coincidentally a 'servant', like
lolaos to Herakles in Libyan myth: we're not mistaken to see Eshmun/Asclepius in this Therapeutic
role.
I've already shared a bronze example discovered in Gaza in c.2014,
repeatedly:
Read defensively, Philo Judaeus reacts as though this ribald criticism had already tainted the Therapeuts' reputation; see his own belabored denial in
De Vita Contemplativa 52:
ἐφεδρεύουσι δ’ ἄλλοι, μειράκια πρωτογένεια, τοὺς ἰούλους ἄρτι ἀνθοῦντες, ἀθύρματα πρὸ μικροῦ παιδεραστῶν γεγονότες, ἠσκημένοι σφόδρα περιέργως πρὸς τὰς βαρυτέρας ὑπηρεσίας, ἐπίδειξις ἑστιατόρων εὐπορίας, ὡς ἴσασιν οἱ χρώμενοι, ὡς δὲ ἔχει τὸ ἀληθές, ἀπειροκαλίας.
On the Therapeuts' garment specifically, see
De Vita Contemplativa 38:
... ἐξωμὶς δὲ θέρους ἢ ὀθόνη.
ἐξωμὶς/exomis = typically a simple/shabby sleeve-less tunic, notably employed for effect in Greek comedy.
θέρους = in summer
ὀθόνη/
othóni is a fine linen drape, and probably an Egyptian product exported to Palestine.
This OP's title made me recall the Early 20th C. 'naturalist' photographer Wilhelm
von Gloeden:
Get a
hoodie, brah. Note curious text on front: "Therapeutae" & "Ascelpius".
Maybe.