[Serious] Literal and Not Literal

[GrandizerII]

It's an impressive rock that prompted one person to think it was placed there directly by the gods ... It became a story as a result ... People loved the story about that impressive rock and it became true to them

People saw snake skins shed in the wild. They made stories out of them. That's the way it went back then. To satisfy their curiosity in the absence of proper scientific tools and mindset, that's what they had. They had other types of stories, sure. They also had this type of story.

So an impressive but entirely pointless rock? Providing no direction for life, serving no purpose or meaning for their community, other than to be entertained by its impressiveness?

This is the sort of stuff, communities dominated by threats of violence, and elements that could tare them apart, death, sickness and tragedy around every corner, saw as so fundamentally important that they passed it along to their children? A belief in an impressively pointless rock?

Nope it was a rock that had meaning. It gave them hope, fostered their faith in the gods.