Kakasbos. A Cavalry Sect?

KAKASBOS. A CAVALRY SECT?

Sacred precinct of Kakasbos in southwestern Tefenni, Burdur. Thomas Corsten and Oliver Hülden, Research in the Kibyratis 2010, AKMED 2011

We see a new cult figure carved on rock reliefs and votive stelai in 2nd and 3rd centuries AD in Northern Lycia-Southern Phrygia-Southwestern Pisida. Kakasbos, depicted as a horse rider with a club on his hand, is often seen at the rocky parts of the territories, but no temple or sanctuary is attested dedicated to him. There is no myth mentinoning that god / hero, who resembles Heracles with a club on his hand, and this makes it difficult to suggest an origin for his identity.

Here I will try to comprehend his identity in the context of contemporary new cults of Gaziantep-based Jupiter Dolichenus and Tarsus-based Mithras, which were popular among the Roman soldiers.

According to Strabon there was a remarkable sized cavalry unit in Kibyra, the city located in Southern Phrygia-Northern Lycia, where Kakasbos cult was popular. He told that Kibyra provided 30.000 infantry and 2.000 cavalry to the tetrapolis confederation it administered. Though those figures sound exaggerated, the leading role of the city in leather and iron manufacture points to its capability for supplying a remarkable military force at the time.

It is a usual phenomenon for soldiers to adopt a religious belief parallel to the orthodox belief. Ottoman janissary division adopted the Bakhthashih sect apart form the mainstream Islam. Civic rules of the daily life did not adress to the soldiers, who obey the rule of not marrying before release from the service, as necessitated by the risks and discipline of the military life. Being member of a sect that requires obediance to specific rules must have given a sense of professional privilege as well. Rhodos knights similarly adopted a Christian sect, and during the reign of Mehmet the Conqueror Pope advised establishment of a knight sect in the island Mytilene similar to that of Rhodos knights, based on Virgin Mary.

Within this context, it seems possible Kakasbos was a warrior god / hero upon whom Northern Lycian - Southern Phrygian cavalry men swore their oaths. Maybe the rock-reliefs on the rocky parts of the countryside labelled the sacred areas where newly recruited cavalry men swore their oaths for debut into the unit.