Myth and Religion in the Classical World
What you must understand
You need both a narrative command of major myths and a theoretical vocabulary for interpreting them. Know the Olympian and chthonic divisions, the Hesiodic succession myth, foundation and hero myths, mystery cults (Eleusis), civic festivals (Panathenaia, Dionysia, Roman ludi and Lupercalia), domestic cult, divination and the role of priests as magistrates rather than a separate clerical class. Roman religion adds numen, do ut des reciprocity, augury and the pontificate. Interpretive approaches include etiological, structuralist (binary oppositions), ritualist, psychoanalytic and comparative readings; each has limits.
Traps in questions
Do not equate myth with falsehood or with scripture; Greek myth had no fixed canon. Avoid calling Roman religion 'borrowed' without nuance - interpretatio Romana was a deliberate identification, not simple copying. Do not treat myth as mere entertainment: it carried aetiological, political and social work. Distinguish Greek mythos, logos and historia. Questions on mystery cults often test what was secret versus publicly known.
Rule of thumb
Ask of any myth: what does it explain, what does it authorise, and whose interests does it serve?
Worked example
On the Demeter–Persephone hymn, note three functions simultaneously: aetiology of the seasons, charter for the Eleusinian mysteries, and meditation on mortality and marriage - a multi-functional reading scores higher than a single explanation.