Reading Middle Comedy and enjoyed Alexis fr. 57, a joke mocking the politician Kallimedon: "It's been decreed by the fish-sellers to set up a bronze image of Kallimedon during the Panathenaia in the fish market, holding a roasted crayfish in its right hand." Couple things: /1

The poem utilizes the standard language of honorific decrees, χαλκῆν Καλλιμέδοντος εἰκόνα στῆσαι ~ στῆσα[ι] δὲ αὐτοῦ τὸν δῆμον καὶ εἰκόνα χαλ⟨κ⟩ῆν (SEG 28.60, ll. 95-96, decree for Kallias Sphettios). This confirms the ms reading στῆσαι against στήσειν variants. /2

The specification that Kallimedon's statue will be in the market (agora), specifically "at the fish stalls," ἐν τοῖς ἰχθύσιν, in addition to being funny (he was a notorious glutton), confirms that the Standort of a real honorific statue was meaningful. /3

The detail about the statue holding a roasted crayfish in its hand stems from Kallimedon's nickname, Karabos. It probably originated from the fact that he had a wandering eye (Timokles fr. 29, Alexis fr. 117), but his gourmandizing on expensive fish didn't help. /4

(Incidentally he was a pro-Macedonian politician and considered extremely oligarchic. He thrived under the oligarchic regime led by Phokion in the 320s but fled when democracy returned in 318.) /5

Now, the detail about holding the crayfish: a decree might specify certain features of a statue, most typically whether the honorand should be depicted on horseback (e.g. IG II2 654 ll. 56-58, decree for Audoleon king of the Paionians). /6

It's not specified in the decree for him preserved at [Plut.] Mor. 851d-f, but we know from elsewhere in Pseudo-Plutarch that the statue of Demochares the nephew of Demosthenes was depicted "armed with a sword," as he was when he spoke about Antipatros' demands in 322. /7

A final detail: Alexis has the fish-sellers call Kallimedon their "savior" (σωτήρ). This was becoming a more commonplace honorific title (but see already Ar Eq 149): the Athenians would later call Antigonos the One-Eyed and his son Demetrios "savior gods" (Plut. Demetr. 10.3). /8

In a recently published decree (SEG 59.1406), dating from the period after the battle of Koroupedion in 281, Seleukos and Antiochos are repeatedly praised as "saviors." The Lemnians of the same period called the cup used in their banquets that of "Seleukos Savior." /9

Anyway, I nice bit of confirmation from Alexis that the language of inscriptions (or at least, the language of assembly business that was then inscribed on stone) was well enough known to be parodied. (It is elsewhere, but I didn't know this example.) /end