I'm trying to build a true mythology of Enderion. I started at the beginning, and I'm working through. What are essential stories? Hero quests? Wars and conquests? What are the essential elements to include in a mythology? Updates below:

- Heroes & Epics
 - quests that accomplish/establish
 - establishing history of author nation
 - shaping/defining events of a nation
- Origins
 - of man
 - of natural phenomena
- Ideals & Beliefs
 - religious instruction
 - set down history for children
- Transcribing oral record
 - contradictions
- Tragedy?

Well I'd start with asking myself "what are this cultures ideals?" and then build from there.

Also another thing I see in mythology is how they attempt to explain natural phenomena.

*reminds self to post here later*

Heroes!
Inter-connectivity between stories, and possibly some conflicting stories.

At least one big story that pits multiple mythic heroes against each other, ala Trojan War. And one story where many heroes work together, ala the Golden Fleece (Ancient Greek Avengers).

I recommend purposely creating a variety of the different literary genre. I think doing that would go quite a ways in filling in the gaps.

One necessity is the epic.
Epics are always directly tied to the great history of the poet's nation. Examples: The Iliad = events that lead to the destruction of Greece's chief rival and opens the path for becoming the dominant power of the Mediterranean; The Aeneid = events that lead to the founding of Rome.
Also, epics always prominently feature the gods. The Iliad and The Aeneid = Greek/Roman pantheon. Beowulf = Christianity (the three monsters of Beowulf also have direct ties to Christianity).

Another would be tragedy.
Sophocles and Aeschylus were geniuses. Follow Aristotle's Poetics and you'll have an excellent framework for tragedy. Not that it is necessary to strictly follow the framework, but it is a good option (and what Aristotle has to say on tragic heroes is pure gold).


*thinks*

Think not just of the different cultures but the different classes within culture. 'Twill make a difference in each different sub-culture's mythology.

*will probably return later with more* Taking World Lit I is excellent for this. XD

I think another important aspect would be to differentiate between what actually happened and the mythology. It adds for more variety that way and accounts for cultural drift in what happens over time. Plus, once you establish what actually happened, you can use that as a base for mythologies of various cultures that experienced it.

This reminds me of something Rob Skiba talked about in one of his videos. I've pulled a great deal of info to look up and see what I can weave into my world's history from him. Okay back on topic Rob said that he was talking to a Greek friend of his about the meaning of a word and then got on the topic of mythology and his friend said that what we call myth was taught to him as history.

Now here is some food for thought scholars of this day and age call the events in the Bible myth but we call it history. So when you set out to write your myths are they just works of fiction, are they history that's been embellished or are they actual history that the people in your world don't believe took place?