Descriptions of works of art in classical poetry are often susceptible to interpretation as mise en abyme, as a miniature representation of (an aspect of) the work of which it is part. One of the two major ekphraseis in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica concerns the reliefs on the doors of the temple of Sol in Colchis (5.407- 455). This article will show how this ekphrasis reflects Valerius' poetics and how it comments on the Argonautica's relationship with its main model, Virgil's Aeneid.