Cuentan,y podría

Cuentan,y podría
 

I am reading a fable and it starts like this.

"Cuentan,y podría ser que fuera cierto,que en tiempos de antigua Grecia..."

Though I understand what cuentan and podría mean but am not able to get the context.

Saludos,
Raji

Contar (to tell e.g. a story)
They say, and it could be that it is true, that in the time of Ancient Greece....:)

(Or in idiomatic English : Once upon a time (and perhaps it was true) .....)

was/were?

Definitely indicative, not subjunctive. So was or is, although if one is true, then so is the other. :D

Not in Spanish... :)

Hmmm... I think I will agree (for once) with Hernán... ;)
"Was" fits better the mood of "podría ser que fuera cierto".
I feel the sentence unnecessarily pompous though. It could just be "podría haber sido cierto" or "podría ser cierto". :)

In the context of the word Cuentan, they want to say that are telling something it.

In the part where appear podria que fuera cierto, it's like that you would say it could be true anything you say.