Margites

The Margites, a comic mock-epic of Ancient Greece, is about an idiot named "Margites" (Gk. μάργος "raving, mad; lustful") who was so dense he didn't know which parent had given birth to him. It commonly attributed to Homer but likely of later origin. It is written in mixed hexameter and iambic lines.

It was famous in the ancient world, but now only the following lines survive:

Him, then, the Gods made neither a delver nor a ploughman,

Nor in any other way wise; he failed every art.

as quoted by Aristotle

He knew many things, but he knew them badly...

as quoted by Plato

There came to Colophon an old man and divine singer,

a servant of the Muses and of far-shooting Apollo.

In his dear hands he held a sweet-toned lyre...

as quoted by Atilius Fortunatianus

The fox knows many a wile;

but the hedgehog's one trick can beat them all.

as quoted by Zenobius (attributed simply to "Homer")