Aesop (c. 620–564 BCE) was an Ancient Greek fabulist, or story teller, credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. Many of the tales are characterized by animals and inanimate objects that speak, solve problems, and generally have human characteristics.
Scattered details of Aesop's life can be found in ancient sources, including Aristotle, Herodotus, and Plutarch. The earliest Greek sources, including Aristotle, indicate that Aesop was born around 620 BCE in Thrace at a site on the Black Sea coast which would later become the city Mesembria.
The fables attributed to Aesop are numerous, and are all listed here: Aesop's Fables
A collection of jokes from the book Philogelos, he oldest existing collection of jokes:
A man complains that the slave he has recently purchased has died. "By the gods", says the slave's former owner, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing."
A student dunce wants to see if he looks good when he's asleep. So he stands in front of a mirror with his eyes closed.
An intellectual, falling sick, had promised to pay the doctor if he recovered. When his wife nagged at him for drinking wine while he had a fever, he said: "Do you want me to get healthy and be forced to pay the doctor?"
An intellectual came to check in on a friend who was seriously ill. When the man's wife said that he had "departed", the intellectual replied: "When he comes back, will you tell him that I stopped by?"
An Abderite who was a eunuch had the misfortune to develop a hernia
A young man said to his libido-driven wife: "What should we do, darling? Eat or have sex?" And she replied: "You can choose. But there's not a crumb in the house."
An idiot asks a silvershmith to make him a lamp. "How big do you want me to make it?" the silversmith asks. "Big enough for eight people to see by!"
A misogynist was sick, at death's door. When his wife said to him, "If anything bad happens to you, I’ll hang myself," he looked up at her and said: "Do me the favor while I'm still alive."