Soma is now the moon, but as being one half of Vritra, the evil demon.  The other half became the belly of creatures (ib.  I. 6. 3. 17).  Slightly different is the statement that Soma was Vritra, IV. 2. 5. 15.  In [=A]it.  Br. I. 27, King Soma is bought of the Gandharvas by V[=a]c, ‘speech,’ as a cow.[13] With phases of the moon Indra and Agni are identified.  One is the deity of the new; the other, of the full moon; while Mitra is the waning, and Varuna the waxing moon (Cat.  Br. II. 4. 4. 17-18).  This opposition of deities is more fully expressed in the attempt to make antithetic the relations of the gods and the Manes, thus:  ’The gods are represented by spring, summer, and rains; the Fathers, by autumn, winter, and the dewy season; the gods, by the waxing; the Fathers, by the waning moon; the gods, by day; the Fathers, by night; the gods, by morning; the Fathers, by afternoon’ (Cat.  Br. II. 1.-31; ib.  II. 4. 2. 1. ff.:  ’The sun is the light of the gods; the moon, of the Fathers; fire, of men’).  Between morning and afternoon, as representative of gods and Manes respectively, stands midday, which, according to the same authority (II. 4. 2. 8), represents men.  The passage first cited continues thus:  ’The seasons are gods and Fathers; gods are immortal; the Fathers are mortal.’  In regard to the relation between spring and the other seasons, the fifth section of this passage may be compared:  ’Spring is the priesthood; summer, the warrior-caste; the rains are the (vic) people.’[14]

Among the conspicuous divine forms of this period is the Queen of Serpents, whose verses are chanted over fire; but she is the earth, according to some passages ([=A]it.  Br..  V. 23; Cat.  Br. II. 1. 4. 30; IV. 6. 9. 17).  In their divine origin there is, indeed, according to the theology now current, no difference between the powers of light and of darkness, between the gods and the ‘spirits,’ asuras, i.e., evil spirits.  Many tales begin with the formula:  ’The gods and evil spirits, both born of the Father-god’ (Cat.  Br. I. 2. 4. 8).  Weber thinks that this implies close acquaintance with Persian worship, a sort of tit-for-tat; for the Hindu would in that case call the holy spirit, ahura, of the Persian a devil, just as the Persian makes an evil spirit, daeva, out of the Hindu god, deva.  But the relations between Hindu and Persian in this period are still very uncertain.  It is interesting to follow out some of the Brahmanic legends, if only to see what was the conception of the evil spirits.  In one such theological legend the gods and the (evil) spirits, both being sons of the Father-god, inherited from him, respectively, mind and speech; hence the gods got the sacrifice and heaven, while the evil spirits got this earth.  Again, the two entered on the inheritance of their father in time, and so the gods have the waxing moon, and the evil spirits, the waning moon (ib. III 2. 1. 18; I. 7. 2. 22).