The Greeks developed both an extensive mythology and a strong metaphysical philosophy. The two are thought to be quite distinct, with mythology seen as irrational and metaphysics as rational, myth as imaginative and metaphysics as scientific. This is the wrong way to make a distinction between the two. G.S. Kirk discusses the extensive argument concerning the idea of a form of mythical thinking which is somehow different from rational, metaphysical thinking. He also notes the number of thinkers who view the difference between these modes of thought, and between myth and metaphysics, in terms that might be seen as degrees of rationality. He cites Andrew Lang to the effect that all myths are a form of primitive science:
That view still has its modern adherents, and a well-known classical scholar wrote as recently as 1969: "True myth is an explanation of some natural process made in a period when such explanations were religious and magical rather than scientific" (Kirk 17).
Kirk rightly points out that there is more than one kind of myth and that such pronouncements as these make it seem as if all myths are alike, but applying the conception specifically to Greek mythology and to Greek metaphysics, there is truth in the idea that the myths developed in a pre-scientific atmosphere and metaphysics through more scientific methods of inquiry.
The Greeks developed over time a massive and complex mythology that explained in animistic, anthropomorphic terms many of the natural phenomena seen in the world around them and at the same time propounded a direct relationship between themselves and the gods as part of that explanation. Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that examines the nature of reality and the relationships between such elements as mind and matter, substance and attribute. It includes both ontology and cosmology. The subject matters of myth and metaphysics overlap. They can indeed be seen as attempts to explain...