Birdman by Frank Frazetta
Neither of these two worlds to me
seems equal to one of my two wings.
Have I drunk of the soma? Yes!
I have overwhelmed heaven with my greatness,
I have overwhelmed this great earth.
Have I drunk of the soma? Yes!
I myself, I myself will set down this earth,
perhaps here, perhaps there.
Have I drunk of the soma? Yes!
Heatedly will I smash the earth, I will smash it,
perhaps here, perhaps there.
Have I drunk of the soma? Yes!
In heaven is the one of my two wings.
The other I have dragged down here below.
Have I drunk of the soma? Yes!
I myself, I am become great,
great, impelled upward to the clouds.
Have I drunk of the soma? Yes!
Excerpted from Hymn 119 of the 10th Mandala of the Rig Veda
and composed sometime around 1500 BC (translation by George Thompson)
seems equal to one of my two wings.
Have I drunk of the soma? Yes!
I have overwhelmed heaven with my greatness,
I have overwhelmed this great earth.
Have I drunk of the soma? Yes!
I myself, I myself will set down this earth,
perhaps here, perhaps there.
Have I drunk of the soma? Yes!
Heatedly will I smash the earth, I will smash it,
perhaps here, perhaps there.
Have I drunk of the soma? Yes!
In heaven is the one of my two wings.
The other I have dragged down here below.
Have I drunk of the soma? Yes!
I myself, I am become great,
great, impelled upward to the clouds.
Have I drunk of the soma? Yes!
Excerpted from Hymn 119 of the 10th Mandala of the Rig Veda
and composed sometime around 1500 BC (translation by George Thompson)
Although the debate has raged for more than a century and a half, the identity of the sacred soma drink so enthusiastically praised in both the Rig Veda and the Avesta (the ancient founding texts of Hinduism and Zoroastrianism respectively) remains a mystery. Soma is a Sanskrit word which means "that which is pressed" (Haoma is its cognate in Avestan) and this refers to a milky white liquid extracted from a rare plant growing on a distant mountainside.
The ritual consumption of soma was is known to be very ancient and was probably practised by the Indo-Aryan tribes of Central Asia before they split up (around 4000 BC) and migrated south into India and Iran during the second millennim BC.
The precise psychoactive nature of soma is not known despite it being praised literally hundreds of times in the Rig Veda. Some of the descriptions imply that it worked as a mild stimulant while others are suggestive that it was a hallucinogen.
Whatever it was, it sounds like it must have been some really good shit.
Thus Spake Zarathustra
Good introduction to the state of play in this debate
Claim to have found the origin of this cult in the temples of Margiana and Bactria
Chemical analysis this archaeological material and some doubts