well, "mythological" does not mean "fake" or "not real," the way we define "myth" today
they completely understood this, but just held a different definition of "mythology" than "false," what every Christian more or less believes it to mean; by design. Mythology is how truth is maintained and passed to the next generation before reading catches on; not the lie that logicians have made it into
I am sure that those who believed other "mythologies" did not consider them "fake / unreal" either. Perhaps "fable(s)" would be a better choice with regard to some. Origen comes to mind:
In "Against Celsus", Origen lists a number of pagan gods from ancient stories that were also born of "virgins", but unlike that Jesus story they are only fables according to Origen.
Yet, I am sure that those who believed those "fables / mythologies" would claim the opposite.
Stories of divine / virgin birth were a dime a dozen.
Augustus Caesar's birth was also attributed as being of divine origin in Suetonius' account in the "Twelve Caesars":
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"Having reached this point, it will not be out of place to add an account of the omens which occurred before he was born, on the very day of his birth, and afterwards, from which it was
possible to anticipate and perceive his future greatness and uninterrupted good fortune. ... According to Julius Marathus, a few months before Augustus was born a portent was generally
observed at Rome, which gave warning that nature was pregnant with a king for the Roman people; thereupon the senate in consternation decreed that no male child born that year should
be reared; but those whose wives were with child saw to it that the decree was not filed in the treasury ... I have read the following story in the books of Asclepias of Mendes entitled Theologumena.
When Atia had come in the middle of the night to the solemn service of Apollo, she had her litter set down in the temple and fell asleep, while the rest of the matrons also slept. On a sudden a serpent glided up to her and shortly went away. When she awoke, she purified herself, as if after the embraces of her husband, and at once there appeared on her body a mark in colours like a serpent, and she could never get rid of it; so that presently she ceased ever to go to the public baths. In the tenth month after that Augustus was born and was therefore regarded as the son of Apollo. Atia too, before she gave him birth, dreamed that her vitals were borne up to the stars and spread over the whole extent of land and sea, while Octavius dreamed that the sun rose from Atia's womb.
The day he was born the conspiracy of Catiline was before the House, and Octavius came late because of his wife's confinement; then Publius Nigidius, as everyone knows, learning the reason for his tardiness and being informed also of the hour of the birth, declared that the ruler of the world had been born. ... Moreover, the very next night he dreamt that his son appeared to him in a guise more majestic than that of mortal man, with the thunderbolt, sceptre, and insignia of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, wearing a crown begirt with rays and mounted upon a laurel-wreathed chariot drawn by twelve horses of surpassing whiteness. When Augustus was still
an infant, as is recorded by the hand of Gaius Drusus, he was placed by his nurse at evening in his cradle on the ground floor and the next morning had disappeared; but after long search he was at last found on a lofty tower with his face towards the rising sun. ... the next night he dreamt that he saw this same boy in the lap of Jupiter of the Capitol, and that when he had ordered that he be removed, the god warned him to desist, declaring that the boy was being reared to be the saviour of his country."
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