f testing the truth
pleases him. And not content with that, with the sword he cuts the
throat of an hostage that had been sent from the nation of the
Molossians,[45] and then softens part of the quivering limbs, in boiling
water, and part he roasts with fire placed beneath. Soon as he had
placed these on the table, I, with avenging flames, overthrew the house
upon the household Gods,[46] worthy of their master. Alarmed, he himself
takes to flight, and having reached the solitude of the country, he
howls aloud, and in vain attempts to speak; his mouth gathers rage from
himself, and through its {usual} desire for slaughter, it is directed
against the sheep, and even still delights in blood. His garments are
changed into hair, his arms into legs; he becomes a wolf, and he still
retains vestiges of his ancient form. His hoariness is still the same,
the same violence {appears} in his features; his eyes are bright as
before; {he is still} the same image of ferocity.

"Thus fell one house; but one house alone did not deserve to perish;
wherever the earth extends, the savage Erinnys[47] reigns. You would
suppose that men had conspired to be wicked; let all men speedily feel
that vengeance which they deserve to endure, for such is my
determination."

[Footnote 44: _Together with Cyllene._--Ver. 217. Cyllenus, or
Cyllene, was a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Mercury, who was
hence called by the poets Cyllenius. Lycaeus was also a mountain of
Arcadia, sacred to Pan, and was covered with groves of
pine-trees.]

[Footnote 45: _Of the Molossians._--Ver. 226. The Molossi were a
people of Epirus, on the eastern side of the Ambracian gulf. Ovid
here commits a slight anachronism, as the name was derived from
Molossus, the son of Neoptolemus, long after the time of Lycaon.
Besides, as Burmann observes, who could believe that 'wars could
be waged at such an early period between nations so distant as the
Molossi and the Arcadians?' Apollodorus says, that it was a child
of the same country, whose flesh Lycaon set before Jupiter. Other
writers say that it was Nyctimus, the son of Lycaon, or Arcas, his
grandson, that was slain by him.]

[Footnote 46: _Upon the household Gods._--Ver. 231. This
punishment was awarded to the Penates, or household Gods of
Lycaon, for taking such a miscreant under their protection.]

[Footnote 47: _The savage Erinnys._--Ver. 241. Erin