The great stories of the nations, from Monkey to King Arthur not only often mix religion with mythical times and places, but they describe attributes and characteristics we think of as espousing the best and worst in human beings. They are all there from the Odyssey to Genesis, the Mahabharata to Turkic Shaman tales. And always there are heroes and anti-heroes and these stories have not changed so much in thousands of years that we redraw them in modern movies.
Here you will find the young hot head, the wise, the great fighter, the traitor. Here you will find talk of duty, honour and friendship, the ways of women, the art of children, the journey of the heart as well as of the mind. These stories which we tell our children and tell them they are fables, fantasies made up in past times contain within them the great lessons of life.
Lancelot never meant to betray Arthur, Helen did not intend to betray Agamemnon, Monkey did not start out to help a monk of his own free will, Biblical giants are often told what to do by a god even against their wishes.
And this is the great unknown, this is why people have come to believe in destiny and fate. The path we live is never the one we chose.