Because
Myths were spread by word of mouth in the ancient history, the stories
varied. Sometimes myths are compared with the Bible but in this respect
they differ from eachother. The Bible is a collection of written events from the time of
the events itselves. Myths were not based on written sources and therefore
could be and were interpreted in many ways.
In contradiction to the above the storie of the myths are
told within a plaincadre. The world of the ancient Greek was
dominated by a number of deities of which
Zeus was the supreme god. He lived at the top of the
Olympus mountain, the
highest mountain of Greece. He was married to Hera, a strict and serious
woman. The other deities were either his brothers and sisters or his children.
E.g. Athena was born out of the head of Zeus in full armour. She became
the patroness of peace and the goddess of wisdom.
The
Greek deities were not seen as threathning. In many ways they did show
human behaviour beceause of which the became very close to the people.
The stories about Zeus and other deities who did not really upheld the
rules like marital loyalty are very famous. Other weaknesses like jalousy
and vanity also were shown by the Greek deities. Such heroic stories were
told in later history and therefore formed a sign for the authors of later
times that in the late Greek period the stories were not taken very seriously
anymore.
