What was the cultural/historical context of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and how did it affect the text/its reception?

I’ve posted this in some other subs earlier today, but I wanted to get a historical/anthropological perspective too so I’m also posting it on these respective subs for r/askhistorians and r/askanthropology. I hope that’s alright. Let me know if there’s a better place I should ask.

Hello. I’m reading Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Raeburn translation) and keep finding myself viewing it through a modern lens- I would like to learn more about its cultural/political/historical context so that I can read it closer to the way it was likely intended. I’d like to know the basic background information, but I also have a few specific questions. I’d like to learn more about how writer and reader were influenced or impacted by their social context.

1. Are these stories meant to be taken as having “good guys” and “bad guys”? Any moral lessons? It feels like often the rewards and punishments are inconsistent with what I consider justified. Likely that’s just because I’m reading it from my own perspective which is not the same morals they had back in the day

2. What were the morals they had back in the day? Specifically on rape and other things we currently judge as sexual taboo. It seems as though in the text, rapists are not judged as harshly as their victims, especially when Juno is involved (but that may just be her own possessiveness/jealousy over Jupiter). I’m curious if there were different rules for “good” and “bad” and punishments/rewards that would make these things more consistent if I knew the “rules” they were going by. Im aware there’s probably no hard and fast actual “rules”, but general things to be aware of as ways their moral systems differ from current ones would be appreciated.

3. Or is it meant to just be stories of things happening with no right or wrong? Were gods’ punishments/rewards always considered “right” because they were gods, or were contemporary readers/listeners meant to think that the gods were unreasonable? I have heard that for some things, like incest, moral standards are different for gods than they are for mortals. But I’m not sure in what cases or to what degree or why.

4. What are some major differences between Ovid’s version of these stories versus other retellings from the time? Any specific controversial changes he made? Any trends he started? Any stories that are purely his invention?

I’m not sure if I worded those questions in a way that makes sense. Basically, I know that applying current morals to the stories is anachronistic, but I’m not sure what moral standards were meant to be applied when reading, and what these stories would mean to the people of the time.