So is your (presumed) disbelief in Odin a "religious" stance or a "philosophical" stance?
I think that all the myths support an argyment that they were written because the writers saw that people behave in certain ways.
These "ways" can be classified into a dozen or so groups.
There is a mentality, personalities, perspectives, etc that are of a fixed nature for our species.
So we see people behaving with certain group mentalities.
The ancient astrologers basically claimed this was the case, and the thought it was genetically based and tied into the seasonal conditions of the birth month.
They believed, for instance, that december babies would be conditioned, nurtured, and probably, by Nature, genetically given traits to handle tough times of winter, for instance.
So these "religions" were really practices they saw in whole types of peoples which were designated as their "religion," and the people were seen as followers of some "god" that stayed here long after the people died.
New babies filled the old shoes.
This was the idae of Immortality for the god.
