Drama is usually thought to have begun with the ancient Greeks. In order to promote their new god Dionysos, his followers put on first lectures, then plays, showing the story of their patron as well as outlining his adherents' philosophies. (It was adapted from the ritual parades for Min, a similar god in Egypt.) This proved such a success, especially for the less literate, that it was adopted for other religions, and is used as such up through the 22nd century (albeit for different religions!). It was not a far stretch for people to begin writing plays dealing with legendary heroes, and then writing plays simply for entertainment, with no overt religious meaning behind them. Although never achieving quite the high-brow status of painting or sculpture (with the exception of the works of William Shakespeare and Stanley Kubrick), drama is nonetheless now considered foremost a pure art form, without having to have a belief system to legitimize it.