In book 6 of the Thebaid, Statius puts on a funeral for a baby prince (Opheltes) accidentally crushed by the flick of a giant serpent's tail, while his nurse is busy telling her life story to the leaders of the Argive army on their way to Thebes. The Argives hold full-scale funeral games, which represent an opportunity to play with epic predecessors and create a new world between Greece and Rome, epic and reality. At 268–95, nine days after Opheltes' funeral pyre has burnt out, after the crowd have arrived for the games and before the chariot race, Statius stages a procession. I give the full passage:
exin magnanimum series antiqua parentum
inuehitur, miris in uultum animata figuris.
primus anhelantem duro Tirynthius angens
pectoris attritu sua frangit in ossa leonem.
haud ilium impauidi quamuis et in aere suumque
Inachidae uidere decus. pater ordine iuncto
laeuus harundineae recubans super aggere ripae
cernitur emissaeque indulgens Inachus urnae.
Io post tergum, iam prona dolorque parentis,
spectat inocciduis stellatum uisibus Argum.
ast illam melior Phariis erexerat aruis
Iuppiter atque hospes iam tunc Aurora colebat.
Tantalus inde parens, non qui fallentibus undis
inminet aut refugae sterilem rapit aera siluae,
sed pius et magni uehitur conuiua Tonantis.
parte alia uictor curru Neptunia tendit
lora Pelops, prensatque rotas auriga natantes
Myrtilos et uolucri iam iamque relinquitur axe.
et grauis Acrisius speciesque horrenda Coroebi
et Danae culpata sinus et in amne reperto
tristis Amymone, paruoque Alcmena superbit
Hercule tergemina crinem circumdata luna.
iungunt discordes inimica in foedera dextras
Belidae fratres, sed uultu mitior astat
Aegyptus; Danai manifestum agnoscere ficto
ore notas pacisque malae noctisque futurae.
mille dehinc species, tandem satiata uoluptas
praestantesque uiros uocat ad sua praemia uirtus.
(Thebaid 6.268-95)