I found this series useful in answering that question.
The Buddhist tradition has created and passed down the world’s oldest and largest body of mythological literature, yet its value is rarely appreciated. Mythologycreates meaning by situating a people in the story of the world. Buddhist mythology teaches us how Buddhist people over the years have struggled to reconcile the pure and exalted teachings of the Buddha with their messy and imperfect lives. These are the stories that don’t make it into the “proper” doctrines: stories of women, of loss, of the dispossessed, of redemption in the most unlikely places. This course draws on multiple modern interpretations of myth to illuminate Buddhist stories, arguing that mythology deserves a central place in our understanding of how we, as people inspired by the Buddha’s teachings, can learn from those who have come before. Bhante Sujato, the respected teacher and scholar of early Buddhism, will lead the course, which runs for four two-hour evening sessions over four weeks.