163When the father, Saturn's son, saw this from his high citadel, he groans, and, recalling the foul feast at Lycaon's table, not yet made public since the deed was recent, he conceives in his mind huge anger worthy of Jupiter, and calls a council: no delay held back those summoned. 168There is a lofty road, plain to see when the sky is clear: it has the name Milky, notable for its very whiteness. 170By this way the gods go to the halls of the great Thunderer and his royal home. 171On the right and the left the halls of the noble gods are thronged, their doors open (the common folk live apart in various places): in this part the powerful and illustrious heaven-dwellers have set their household gods.
175This is the place which, if boldness may be granted to my words, I would not fear to call the Palatine of great heaven. 177So when the gods had sat down in the marble chamber, he himself, higher in place and leaning on his ivory sceptre, shook three times and four the terrifying locks of his head, with which he moved earth, sea and stars. 181Then in such terms he opened his indignant lips: 'I was not more anxious for the kingdom of the world at that time when each of the snake-footed ones was preparing to throw his hundred arms upon the captive sky. 185For although the enemy was fierce, still that war hung on one body and sprang from one origin.
187Now, wherever Nereus roars around the whole world, I must destroy the mortal race: I swear by the rivers below, gliding beneath the earth in the Stygian grove! 190All else has been tried first: but a body that cannot be healed must be cut away with the sword, so that the sound part is not drawn in. 192I have demigods, I have rustic deities, nymphs and fauns and satyrs and the mountain-dwelling silvani: since we do not yet deem them worthy of the honour of heaven, let us at least allow them to live in the lands we have given them. 196Or do you believe, gods, that they will be safe enough, when Lycaon, known for his savagery, has laid a trap for me, who hold and rule both the thunderbolt and you?' 199All roared together, and with burning zeal demand the one who dared such things.
200So, when an impious band raged to blot out the Roman name with the blood of Caesar, the human race was stunned with such terror of sudden ruin, and the whole world shuddered: nor is the devotion of your people less pleasing to you, Augustus, than that was to Jupiter. 205After he had checked their murmurs with voice and hand, all held their silence. 207When the clamour had died away, checked by the authority of their ruler, Jupiter again broke the silence with these words: 'He at least, put away this concern, has paid the penalty. 210But what the offence was, and what the punishment, I shall tell you. 211The infamy of the times had reached our ears; 212wishing it false, I glide down from the summit of Olympus and, a god in human form, travel over the lands.
214It would take long to list how much wrong was found everywhere: the report itself was less than the truth. 216I had crossed Maenalus, bristling with the lairs of wild beasts, and, with Cyllene, the pine woods of chill Lycaeus: from there I enter the seat and inhospitable house of the Arcadian tyrant, as the late twilight was drawing on the night. 220I gave signs that a god had come, and the common folk had begun to pray: Lycaon first mocks their pious vows, then says, "I shall test, by open proof, whether this is a god or a mortal. 223Nor will the truth be in doubt." 224He prepares to destroy me by night, heavy with sleep, with an unexpected death: this test of the truth pleases him.
226Nor is he content with that: with his blade he cut the throat of one of the hostages sent from the Molossian people, and then softened part of the half-dead limbs in boiling water and roasted part over a fire set beneath. 230As soon as he set this on the table, I with avenging flame brought the roof down upon household gods worthy of their master. 232He himself flees in terror, and reaching the silence of the countryside he howls and tries in vain to speak: his mouth gathers madness from his very self, and with his usual lust for slaughter he turns on the flocks, and even now delights in blood.
236His clothes turn into shaggy hair, his arms into legs: he becomes a wolf and keeps traces of his old form. 238The greyness is the same, the same violence of face, the same eyes gleam, the same image of savagery. 240One house has fallen. 240But not one house alone deserved to perish: wherever the earth extends, the fierce Fury reigns. 242You would think they had sworn themselves to crime. 242Let them all quickly pay the penalties they have deserved to suffer (so my verdict stands).' 244Some approve Jupiter's words aloud and add goads to his raging, others play their part with assent. 246Yet the loss of the human race is a grief to all, and they ask what the form of the earth will be, bereft of mortals, who will bring incense to the altars, and whether he is preparing to hand the lands over to wild beasts to ravage.
250As they ask such things, the king of the gods forbids them to be alarmed (for the rest, he says, will be his concern), and promises a race unlike the former people, of marvellous origin.