He's a standard literary device that you see in fables of this period, and later--the kind that you find for example in the fables of Aesop.

它只是当时在传说中，不可缺少的角色，你可以在随后的伊索寓言中，找到类似的例子。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

The story is explaining how these odd conditions of life came to be as they are, which is not to say that it's the ideal situation or even that it's God's will for humankind these are etiological fables, and they're best read as such.

这个故事解释了，这些奇怪的生活状态,并不是说，这些便是理想的,甚至是根据上帝旨意的生活状态,而是阐述为什么会这样的原因，这是最好的解释。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选