Mythology involves legends and heroic tales from the past, often using gods and goddesses to teach lessons or to inform. Mythology quotes can be found for Hindu deities, Greek gods and goddesses, Roman mythical beings, and other ruling individuals or superior beings who were more than human. Each type of mythology was used long ago to teach valuable lessons and impart essential knowledge as well as to amuse and entertain. Today mythology is viewed as fiction and science rules the day, but in the past many societies and civilizations actually believed in many deities who each had specific characteristics which were admired or feared. According to some stories in mythology the supreme beings could transform into different shapes, animals, and people, and some of the gods and goddesses were resentful of humans or liked to play cruel tricks on a species that they considered inferior.