Actually Pete I don't think that ancient men and women were ignoramuses, and I believe that they were bright enough to distinguish myth and allegory from a literal account. And to understand nevertheless that myth and allegory have their place in improving understanding. Its modern people, and even then, not very many of them, who believe that ancient people were so lacking in creativity and imagination that they could write down nothing but what is effectively a diary. And even then that they were inspired to do so by God, and if God had inspired them to write a mere diary, well then it wouldn't say much for God or the people he had created.

Aquinas of course was a great follower of Aristotle, as well as God, so he was indeed influenced by the Greeks.