In Ancient Greece and Rome, mythology was used to explain natural events and common questions that people would wonder in everyday life. To the peoples of this time, mythology was a large part of their society because scientific answers had not arisen by then. The creation of gods and goddesses was to explain the reason that natural occurances happened, like thunderstroms or hurricanes.
To currnt times, science has overtaken the roles of myths by explaining why everyday occurrences happen. Today, myths are used more in  an entertainment aspect. While myths do entertain and fascinate the people reading them, they do not have the same importance as they did to the people of the time area in which they myths were created.
When having a written record was not available, myths were passed verbally from generation to generation. For example, the myth of Hercules. When the myth first appeared, there could have been some truth hidden in the myth. Unfortunately, when Disney made the movie, it was completely different from the original. While the movie and the original myth had some similarities, they could not be the same because the myth became more and more exaggerated as it was told from generation to generation.
While the most recent and most well known myths, Lord of the Rings, finally gave England their own set of myths, it did not focus on the main set of classic mythological characters. There were no gods who controlled natural phenominoms, nor were the heroes with superpowers. This recent myth was more logical and had more specs of plausibility within the myth. While this myth was not overly important for modern life, it finally gave England something that they have wanted for a very long time.