Almost all of the world's Greek speakers lived as citizens or subjects of the Roman Empire.
The spiritual revolution that took place , saw a waning of the old Greek
religion, whose decline beginning in the 3rd century BC continued with
the introduction of new religious movements from the East. Greece itself had a tendency to cling to paganism and was not one of the
influential centers of early Christianity: in fact, some ancient Greek
religious practices remained in vogue until the end of the 4th century.
Greeks have strong attachment to moral laws set by the Roman gods and goddesses. In the story, you can infer that the humans have strong belief to their gods,thus bargained their lives on what they prayed or wished for to come true.