This is a different topic but I can't help the feeling that ancient people didn't take their myths as literally as we think they did. Ever heard modern religious people say ,,oh the Bible/Quoran/Tora isn't to be taken literally, God isn't an old guy with a beard sitring on a cloud, these are all metaphores and paralels and parables that speak of an idea etc"?

What if ancient Greeks were like ,,oh the myth of Persephone isn't to be taken literally, I mean, she didn't ACTUALLY collapse beneath the crust of the earth! It simply meant, that..."