The world was chaos. There was only the darkness of Night and the abyss of death until Love was born. Love then gave birth to Light which gave the world Day. Creation continued to take place , and when the gods saw the world, they decided to create mankind. Although mythological tales are viewed by many as fantasies, mythology is comprised of various versions of distorted stories that attempt to explain life 's mysteries, to describe the journeys of heroes in past generations, and to provide a unique identity to Greek culture. In Greek culture, the gods did not shape mankind in their own image, mankind shaped the gods in their image. The gods were created with human characteristics so that the Greeks would easily relate to the gods. The god, Apollo, was given his muscular aspect by the Greeks who watched strong athletes compete in the Olympics. To make Greek stories seem historical and realistic, heroes were given Greek birthplaces. For instance, the Greeks wrote that the hero Heracles was born in the Greek city of Thebes instead of creating a non-existing city as his birthplace. The stories of the Greek gods provided entertainment to the people. People found amusement in the stories of heroes confronting challenging tasks and even in Zeus 's attempts to hide his affairs from his wife, Hera. The Greeks tried to avoid the unexplainable things that they could not comprehend in their culture. The mysteries of the universe that left humans baffled instigated fear, and to