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divinities. We have now to take up a side of religion which lies more apart from speculation, but it is concerned very closely with man's religious instincts—the worship of Bacchic character, the reverence for and fear of the death-god, and the eschatological fancies of the poets, together with those first attempts at creating a new theosophy which close the period of the Rig Veda.
SOMA.
Inseparably connected with the worship of Indra and Agni is that of the '
moon-plant, soma, the intoxicating personified drink to whose deification must be assigned a date earlier than that of the Vedas themselves. For the soma of the Hindus is etymologically identified with the haoma of the Persians (the [Greek: omomi) of Plutarch[12]), and the cultus at least was begun before the separation of the two nations, since in each the plant is regarded as a god. The inspiring effect of intoxication seemed to be due to the inherent divinity of the plant that produced it; the plant was, therefore, regarded as divine, and the preparation of the draught was looked upon as a sacred ceremony[13].
This offering of the juice of the soma-plant in India was performed thrice daily. It is said in the Rig Veda that soma grows upon the mountain M[=uljavat, that its or his father is Parjanya, the rain-god, and that the waters are his sisters[14]. From this mountain, or from the sky, accounts differ, soma was brought by a hawk[15]. He is himself represented in other places as a bird; and as a divinity he shares in the praise given to Indra, "who helped Indra to slay Vritra," the demon that keeps back the rain. Indra, intoxicated by soma, does his great deeds, and indeed all the gods depend on somafor immortality. Divine, a weapon-bearing god, he often simply takes the place of Indra and other gods in Vedic eulogy. It is the god Soma himself who slays Vritra, Soma who overthrows cities, Soma who begets the gods, creates the sun, upholds the sky, prolongs life, sees all things, and is the one best friend of god and man, the divine drop (indu), the friend of Indra[16].