Understanding ancient thought process?

On line 365 d of Book II Adeimantus’ discussion of the god’s involvement in just and unjust things struck an interest for me. He states “But it surely isn’t possible to get away from the gods or overpower them. But, if there are no gods, or if they have no care for human things, why should we care at all about getting away…” Later in the book Socrates then presents the idea of ignoring the work of famous author’s like Homer and also discusses the status of the gods and how they are. The ideas of ignoring famous literature and discussing the gods in such certain terms was shocking for me. Reading this it does not surprise me that Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth, given the nature of the times. What I have taken from these passages so far may seem a little strange as they are not the obvious points of discussion and may not be strong philosophical questions. For me I could not hope to understand the message that these ancient men were trying to convey unless I first understood the way that they thought about certain aspects of faith and society. Reading the way that Socrates and the other men speak of the gods, as if they know them personally, is much different than I would think of a god today. I could not hope to derive understanding for their ideas of knowledge, virtue, or justice without first understanding the way they thought of society. And that is what I took as most valuable so far in my readings, the attempt to understand the ancient poeple's thought processes on various issues.