Explanation: Most mythologies, in fact all that I can think of, include gods that are basically humans with super powers. Sure some (like Ancient Egypt) have animal headed gods and some have animal forms (like Anansi of the Akan mythos), but they all basically act like humans only they can control the weather, harvests, tides, etc…
When the author says "was not motivated by literary ambition", the author means that they did not have anything to write about something that happened. Basically they didn't have much to go off of.
