Eirōn

Our word “irony” derives from the Greek “eirōn”, meaning “dissembler”. Eirōn was a stock character in Ancient Greek Comedy. He was the clever, unexpected hero who by pretending to be unintelligent was ultimately able to defeat his enemy, the Alazōn character, who was a braggart. An example of this would be Xanthias, from The Frogs by Aristophanes—who though a servant to his master, the god Dionysus, always proves to be smarter and braver than his master.