Moreover, if _soma_ be the same with Brihaspati, as thinks Hillebrandt, why are there three horns in V.43.

13?
Again, that the expression 'sharpening his horns' does not refer necessarily to the moon may be concluded from x.86.15, where it is stated expressly that the _drink_ is a sharp-horned steer: "Like a sharp-horned steer is thy brewed drink, O Indra," probably referring to the taste.

The sun, Agni, and Indra are all, to the Vedic poet, 'sharp-horned steers[24],' and the _soma_ plant, being luminous and strong (bull-like), gets the same epithet.
The identity is rather with Indra than with the moon, if one be content to give up brilliant theorizing, and simply follow the poets: "The one that purifies himself yoked the sun's swift steed over man that he might go through the atmosphere, and these ten steeds of the sun he yoked to go, saying Indra is the drop (_Indu_)." When had ever the moon the power to start the sun?
What part in the pantheon is played by the moon when it is called by its natural name (not by the priestly name, _soma_)?
Is _m[=a]s_ or _candramas_ (moon) a power of strength, a great god?
The words scarcely occur, except in late hymns, and the moon, by his own folk-name, is hardly praised except in mechanical conjunction with the sun.

The floods of which _soma_ is lord are explained in IX.86.

24-25: "The hawk (or eagle) brought thee from the sky, O drop (_Indu_[25]), ...