The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c21.s1.9

v1.c21.s1.9

Soma shares one hymn each with Pūṣan, Rudra, and Agni. For Soma and Pūṣan, Agni is invoked to put the ripe milk in the raw cows: Soma and Rudra are asked to set free from the fetter of Varuṇa. Agni and Soma are said to have released the stream, obtained the light: one is brought from heaven by Mātariçvan, the other by the eagle from the rock. Except in this one hymn they appear only twice as a pair in the whole of the Rigveda, showing that the close connexion which existed in the ritual and in the later Saṁhitās was not primitive.¹ They appear several times in the Atharvaveda, and still oftener in the Yajurveda, where they are called the two eyes, or brothers, the sun being ascribed to Agni, the moon to Soma. In the ritual the victim which is offered before the main portion of the rite, or in the rite itself, is offered to Agni and Soma, and they also receive cakes, but not a share in the Soma, which certainly suggests that the Soma ritual had been fairly definitely settled before they were united as a joint deity.