Chapter 5 looks at funeral denial and perversion in Statius’ Thebaid. The discussion of these motifs in Statius’ poem focuses on Creon’s funeral abnegation decree at Thebaid 11.661-4. This point marks the official moment when death rites are denied, but the theme has been building steadily over the course of the epic. The chapter also considers a series of bizarre funeral perversions, particularly the funerals for the fallen Argive leaders, all of whom receive a warping of traditional rites. It examines also the role of women and their attempts to provide funerals for their loved ones, specifically Hypsipyle, Argia and Antigone, and the Argive women. The final section details Iris’ ‘preservation’ of the dead Argive leaders, and the strange case of Maeon’s corpse in book 3.

Chapter 3 focuses on funeral denial and perversion in Lucan’s Bellum ciuile. The first section details the elderly survivor’s recollection of the civil war between Marius and Sulla in BC 2. This flashback is crucial for Lucan’s handling of the issues of funeral rites as it anticipates the horrors to come, particularly the warped funeral for Pompey in book 8. Lucan expands Pompey’s death, abuse, and funeral rites over the final three books. The disparate scenes create a patchwork of repeated but slightly altered funeral rites, none of which function as a legitimate ‘whole’. The next section considers Caesar’s position vis-à-vis funeral rites by exploring four scenes that demonstrate his rejection of or lack of interest in what happens to the human body after death (including his own body). The chapter ends with the witch Erichtho’s ‘zombie’ prophetic corpse-soldier, his quasi-prophecy predictive of further death, and Erichtho’s paradoxical, almost loving funeral for the corpse-soldier in book 6. The chapter argues briefly in closing that Lucan lingers on issues of death-in-life, and life-in-death, as a means of highlighting his perception of Neronian Rome as a slavish ‘death-world’.

Chapter 6 investigates funeral rites in Silius’ Punica with special focus on the figure of Hannibal. The chapter’s interest concerns the Carthaginian leader’s perversions of Roman funeral practice when he conducts rites over the corpses of three slain Roman generals (L. Aemilius Paulus, T. Sempronius Gracchus, and M. Claudius Marcellus). This analysis sets the stage for an examination of Hannibal’s quasi-funeral rites that close the poem in book 17, mimicking and masking the triumphal parade for Scipio Africanus that simultaneously doubles as a funeral parade. The chapter closes by considering the role of the civil wars following the death of Nero in 68 CE, in particular importance for Silius of the burning of the Capitol and the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.

Chapter 4 explores corpse abuse in both the Hellenistic and Flavian Argonautica poems, though the emphasis falls on Valerius’ epic. The treatment of the dead comes to the fore particularly in the intestine violence in Valerius’ depiction of the Lemnian massacre in VF 2 and in the Colchian war between the brothers Perses and Aeetes in book 6. In each case the conflict is tinged with the stain of Lucanesque civil war, culminating in a degeneration of violence with abuses aimed at the living and the dead. Valerius’ most extensive engagement with the theme comes during the Argonauts’ confrontation with king Amycus, whose rustic cave is a horror-show of corporal savagery and sadism. The major scene of corpse abuse in Apollonius’ Argonautica occurs when Jason murders Medea’s brother Absyrtus and ritually truncates his corpse. Though this particular mythic scene does not appear in Valerius’ epic, the influence of Apollonius’ poem sends clear shockwaves through the Flavian epic. While Valerius’ poem shows evidence of Apollonian and Lucanian influence in the handling of post mortem violence, it pushes back upon these more visceral expositions by reviving Virgilian distancing effects.