Fig tree of the rocks, where many rooks delight to feed, How sweetly, Pasiphile, you make your guests at home. —Archilochus

Shivering with cold, covered with filth washed up by the sea, with chattering teeth like a dog, may he lie helplessly on his face at the edge of the strand amidst the breakers—this ’tis my wish to see him suffer, who has trodden his oaths under foot, him who was once my friend. —Archilochus

Joel Chandler Harris’s “Uncle Remus” stories 1880s

“Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby”

“The Ant and the Grasshopper” In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest. “Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?” “I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant, “and recommend you to do the same.” “Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present.” But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew: It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

“The Peacock and the Crane” A Peacock spreading its gorgeous tail mocked a Crane that passed by, ridiculing the ashen hue of its plumage and saying, “I am robed, like a king, in gold and purple and all the colors of the rainbow; while you have not a bit of color on your wings.” “True,” replied the Crane; “but I soar to the heights of heaven and lift up my voice to the stars, while you walk below, like a cock, among the birds of the dunghill.” Fine feathers don't make fine birds.

“In this language [of fables], like a large animal alphabet, are written some of the first philosophic certainties of men.” (G. K. Chesterton, “Aesop’s Fables”)

Old Comedy: a kind of comedy that predominated in the 5th century BCE; the plays were scandalous and bawdy, and often made reference to contemporary people and events

Aristophanes’s The Clouds (419 BCE)

Aristophanes’s The Clouds (419 BCE) DISCIPLE […] Lately, a flea bit Chaerephon on the brow and then from there sprang on to the head of Socrates. Socrates asked Chaerephon, "How many times the length of its legs does a flea jump?" STREPSIADES And how ever did he go about measuring it? Oh! it was most ingenious! He melted some wax, seized the flea and dipped its two feet in the wax, which, when cooled, left them shod with true Persian slippers. These he took off and with them measured the distance. Ah! great Zeus! what a brain! what subtlety!

DISCIPLE I wonder what then would you say, if you knew another of Socrates' contrivances? STREPSIADES What is it? Pray tell me. Chaerephon [...] asked him whether he thought a gnat buzzed through its proboscis [feeding tube] or through its anus. And what did he say about the gnat? He said that the gut of the gnat was narrow, and that, in passing through this tiny passage, the air is driven with force towards the breech; then after this slender channel, it encountered the rump, which was distended like a trumpet, and there it resounded sonorously. So the arse of a gnat is a trumpet. Oh! what a splendid arsevation! Thrice happy Socrates! It would not be difficult to succeed in a law-suit, knowing so much about a gnat's guts!

Menippean satire: satire characterized by its loose mixture of genres, styles, and voices