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The Italians were very religious Catholics but why did they paint/sculpt heroes from Greek mythology? Weren't the Greeks considered pagans?

In the examples below, some artists like Michelangelo were considered to be very religious.

Years 1400-1600

Examples:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseus_with_the_Head_of_Medusa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacchus_(Michelangelo)

Venkat S. Rao
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    Possible duplicate – MCW Jun 18 '19 at 08:41
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    I don't have material enough for an answer, but this question strikes me as an attempt to push an Early Modern understanding of religion to a culture that was still fundamentally medieval. And possibly a Protestant outlook on idolatry that does not quite resemble the Catholic one (although on the latter I am less sure). – Denis Nardin Jun 18 '19 at 10:06
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    @Venkat: Please [edit] yourself again to specify the exact timefrma eof your inquiry and expand on what you already researched about this for yourself. – LаngLаngС Jun 18 '19 at 11:33
  • @DenisNardin hadn't Christianity taken over Italy by then? The Duomo was considered the crowning achievement in Florence. – Venkat S. Rao Jun 21 '19 at 04:21
  • @LangLangC I have added some examples. – Venkat S. Rao Jun 21 '19 at 04:21
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    @MarkC.Wallace I do not consider this to be a duplicate. The link does not even have an accepted answer. – Venkat S. Rao Jun 21 '19 at 04:22
  • Classical education was still a thing, and the Iliad and other myths were an important part of classical thought. Please read this question about mythology and let me know what you think. – Astor Florida Jun 21 '19 at 04:52
  • @VenkatS.Rao What do you mean with "taken over Italy"? Yes, most people in Italy were (or at least claimed to be) Christians, and had been so for at least the past 1000 years. But why would Christianity forbid the depiction of Greek myth? We're talking a heavily urban and multicultural area here, not some cartoon Puritans – Denis Nardin Jun 21 '19 at 08:18
  • Were the Italians, as a whole, actually "very religious Catholics"? Or did many of them simply pay lip service to a Church that was both able and willing to impose punishments - up to burning at the stake - on anyone who openly dissented? – jamesqf Jun 21 '19 at 16:06
  • The status of "accepted answer" is of very low significance. Two As at the other Q come close to being the A here as well. To re-open this you might try to re-phase this Q to make clear why the upvoted As over there do not address your inquiry. I guess, moving away a bit more than now from "why no objection to pagan derived content" towards "what made classics attractive again (despite paganism)"? That's still similar, but may be enough from looking at it the other way around to suffice? – LаngLаngС Jun 21 '19 at 16:47

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