Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Greek mythology" in English language version.
Did the Greeks believe in their mythology? The answer is difficult, for 'believe' means so many things. Not everyone believed that Minos, after his death, continued being a judge in Hell or that Theseus fought the Minotaur, and they knew that poets 'lie' [...] [I]n the minds of the Greeks, Theseus had, nonetheless, existed. [...] Why did the Greeks go to the trouble of wishing to separate the wheat from the chaff in myth [...]? We see the extent of the problem when we realize that this attitude toward myth lasted for over two millennia.