Vedic Mythology c5.s3.t4.35

c5.s3.t4.35

In opposition to this hypothesis, it has been argued that, in the vast majority of the references to Soma in the RV., the character of the god as a personification of the plant and juice is clear and obvious. On the other hand, while the identification of Soma and the moon is perfectly clear in the later literature, there is in the whole of the RV. no single distinct and explicit instance either of the identification or of the conception that the moon is the food of the gods. It is only in passages where the brilliance of Soma, so constantly connected with the sun, is vaguely expressed, that references to the moon can be found. At the same time it is possible that amid the chaotic details of the imagery of the Soma hymns, there may occasionally lurk a veiled identification of ambrosia and the moon. Here and there passages celebrating the luminous nature of Soma or referring to his swelling (*āpyāyana*), which affords a parallel to the swelling of the moon, may allude to such a notion. But on the whole, with the few late exceptions generally admitted, it appears to be certain that to the seers of the RV. the god Soma is a personification of the terrestrial plant and juice⁶⁸. It is, moreover, hardly conceivable that all the Vedic commentators, in whose day Soma and the moon were believed to be one, should not know that Soma means the moon in the RV. also⁶⁹.