What's the Primary Meaning of Mythology?

There's a sense in which someone could read these stories and think that they're just stories, or some sort of out dated fairy tale account of the way the universe is. But if you were to read mythology in this way, you'd be entirely missing the point of mythology. That the rue value and meaning of mythology is not in that surface level story about zeus and poseidon. No, there's a secondary message that's being delivered beneath the surface of the text, non explicitly,. And the onis is on the reader to interpret and understand that deeper message, depending on h mythology or reading. This could be anything. It could be the origins of a particular group of people