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Greek Mythography in the Roman World 

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By the Roman age the traditional stories of Greek myth had long since ceased to reflect popular culture. 
Mythology had become instead a central element in elite culture. If one did not know the stories one would not understand most 
f the allusions in the poets and orators, classics and contemporaries alike; nor would one be able to identify 
the scenes represented on the mosaic floors and wall paintings in your cultivated friends' houses, or on the silverware on their tables at dinner.
Mythology was no longer imbibed in the nursery; nor could it be simply picked up from the often oblique allusions in the classics. 
It had to be learned in school, as illustrated by the extraordinary amount of elementary mythological information in the 
many surviving ancient commentaries on the classics, notably Servius, who offers a mythical story for almost every person, 
place, and even plant Vergil mentions. Commentators used the classics as pegs on which to hang stories they thought their students should know.