Father (Praj[=a]pati) is the
All; he is the year of twelve months and five seasons(_ib_. I. 3. 5.
10). Then follows a characteristic bit. Seventeen verses are to be
recited to correspond to the 'seventeenfold' Praj[=a]pati. But 'some
say' twenty-one verses; and he may recite twenty-one, for if 'the
three worlds' are added to the above seventeen one gets twenty, and
the sun (_ya esa tapati_) makes the twenty-first! As to the number of
worlds, it is said (_ib_. I. 2. 4. 11, 20-21) that there are three
worlds, and possibly a fourth.

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._,