There are various types of myths

In The Global Myths, Alexander Eliot defined four types of myth:  
Primitive myths (which were generally stories about nature, as told by shamans).
Pagan myths (which were mostly from the Greek and Roman tales of the interplay between deities and humans).
Sacred myths (as in the stories from current eastern and western religions such as Christianity and Hinduism).
Scientific myths (i.e., "the most solemn and revered creeds of science -- from Lucretius on Nature through Darwin's The Origin of Species").
David Adams Leeming, in The World of Myth, listed four other types:
Cosmic myths (including narratives of the creation and end of the world).
Theistic myths (which portray the deities).
Hero myths (with accounts of individuals such as Achilles and Jesus).
"Place and object" myths (describing places such as Camelot, and objects such as the Golden Fleece). 

We have had deities for many aspects of life

This book contains dozens of classifications, but that is only a small percentage. The Egyptians had more than 2,000 deities; the Hindus have 333 million. Deities have governed virtually every possible activity, object, and emotion. In addition to the broad categories (e.g., war or the sea), we have had deities for individual items; for example, the Irish honored both the goddess of rivers (Boann) and the goddess of the Lagan River (Logia). There have been deities for individual cities (Athena for Athens), mountains (Gauri-Sankar for Mount Everest), lakes, tribes, plant species, temples, constellations, parts of the body, etc. In some cultures, each home possessed its own deity, to supplement the culture's "goddess of the home" (who was named Hestia in the Greek religion). Deities governed not only major phenomena such as agriculture or love or The Sun, but also such common matters as leisure, reptiles, the kitchen stove, guitars, jeering, the nose, politics, prostitution, singing, burlesque, doors, virginity, willpower, firecrackers, gambling, face cream, drunkenness, and the toilet.

"God" is different from mythological gods and goddesses

In mythology, the dieties are not like the monotheistic deity of western religion. (Hinduism has its quasi-monotheistic deity -- Brahman -- but it also has millions of lesser deities.) Mythological deities were not omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent. Like people, they were viewed as limited, flawed, and driven by emotions and ambitions; their main difference from humans was that they had more knowledge and power.

Ancient myths live in our culture

We find references to those myths in many contemporary words and expressions, such as Pandora's box, Oedipus complex, nymph, and olympian. Other words derived from mythology include adonis (from Adonis), aurora (from Aurora), chlorophyll (from Chloris), chronology (from Kronos), discipline (from Disciplina), discord (from Discordia), eros (from Eros), fate (from Fate), fauna (from Faunus), fidelity (from Fides), flora (from Flora), fortune (from Fortuna), fraud (from Fraus), Hades (from Hades), Hell (from Hel), hygiene (from Hygieia), jovial (from Jove), liberty (from Libertas), lunar (from Luna), morphine (from Morpheus), mortality (from Mors), mute (from Muta), narcissism (from Narcissus), nemesis (from Nemesis), ocean (from Oceanus), -- and the names of the planets, and some of the months (including Janus for January), etc. Mars (the Roman war god) is remembered in words such as Mars (the planet), March (the month), and martial (as in martial arts).

Our modern society has its own myths

Some authors say that our society lacks a vigorous mythology; they believe that this lack can cause a sense of meaninglessness, estrangement, rootlessness, and the cold brittleness of a life devoid of reverence and awe. Other authors assert that we do have a mythology -- in certain concepts (such as "progress") and in our larger-than-life celebrities (e.g., Mother Teresa as the goddess of compassion, Albert Einstein as the god of the intellect and the imagination, and Bill Gates as the god of commerce). "Screen goddesses Marilyn Monroe and Madonna incarnate the alluring qualities of Aphrodite. Aristotle Onassis expressed the wheeling-and-dealing Zeus qualities that built a shipping empire, while Muhammad Ali called on the aggressive instinct of Ares, the god of war, every time he stepped into the boxing ring." (As Above So Below, copyright 1992 by New Age Journal.) The media enlarges certain people to mythical proportions, and we each do the same (often by projecting the "Hero" archetype onto other people). Corporations have a mythology, in their "corporate culture." There is a mythology in every group -- our social club, our family, our profession, our subculture, our ethnic group, our religion and denomination, our city, our neighborhood, our friendships, etc. Our mythology changes as our culture changes -- from one generation to the next, from one presidential administration to the next, from one decade to the next.

We each have our own Mythology

Consciously or unconsciously, we create our own myths. We have our deities -- the things which are important and valued and vibrant to us personally. We are heroes in "mythic journeys" by which we romanticize our various passages through life. Although we generally accept cultural myths to the extent to which we are a part of our culture, the truly satisfying and exciting myths are those which arise from our own passions, our own dreams, and our own visions.

Similar myths exist in every culture

The myths have different characters and different plot-lines, but we do find some common themes. Some of the recurring themes include a Golden Age, a fall from a heavenly state, resurrections from death, virgin births, worldwide floods, creation stories in which "one becomes two," and a future apocalypse. When Carl Jung examined the commonalities of myths, he developed his theory of archetypes, which are universal forces which influence us to manifest their particular trait.

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