The myths of the world are both similar and very different. You can say that every culture has some characteristics in their myths that it shares with other cultures all around the world, even though those cultures did not interact at the time the myths originated. The shared elements of the myths include trickster deities, the magical journey and escape, heroes who slay monsters, magical helpers, either in a form of person or an item, a hero undertaking a journey, a hero being eaten by a beast or sent to the underworld and so many more. But all of the myths are unique as they carry the cultural characteristics of the societies that made them.