Pantheons [Myth]

As a child, I enjoyed reading about ancient myths. These were tales of adventure that were made up by people to explain the activities of gods. I began with Greek and Roman pantheons, but I later learned about Norse, Egyptian, Mexican, and other cultural constructs of the divine experience. Furthermore, I found that science fiction and fantasy stories usually included their own pantheons whether exploring an fictional medieval world or encountering powerful deities as mankind explores space. Clearly, mankind has a deeply ingrained need to explore and describe the divine.

While each culture put their own unique view about life into the construction of their pantheons, it always fascinated me to find many commonalities among the various myths. They usually all possessed the following characters:

Creator
This figure was responsible for the creation of the universe. Therefore, this god was often depicted as a female since only women can give birth and therefore "create". These beings were often transcendent and difficult to describe.
Examples: Eurynome, Auðumbla, Ptha, Izanagi

King
Usually described as the first deity to be created (or son of the first deity), this figure was the patriarch of the divine family. Usually described as possessing great power, this deity was not immune from tricker or bad decisions. Their spheres of influence were often storms, wisdom, law and battle.
Examples: Jupiter, Zeus, Odin,Osiris

Queen
The consort of the King god usually filled the role of birthing the other gods in the pantheon. Unfortunately, her husband often produced children with other goddesses, or, worse, with a mortal. Their spheres of influence were often marriage and the family.
Examples: Hera, Juno, Frigg, Isis

Fertility
Often seen as a beautiful woman in the prime of her beauty, this figure was often the daughter of the King god. She was often sought as a wife by the other gods, and her hand in marriage was usually the reward for the bravest and strongest of the immortals. As an interesting observation, in the Greek pantheon, Zeus marries Aphrodite off the the sensible (although boring) god of engineering Hephasteus, but she often cheats on him with Ares, the bad boy god of war. I suppose the struggle between geeks and jocks for beautiful women has gone on for thousands of years. Their spheres of influence were usually fertility, beauty, and sexuality.
Examples: Aphrodite, Venus, Inanna

War
These were the battle leaders of the pantheon. Often the son of the King god (although female war gods existed), they possessed great strength and fighting prowess. Their arrogance and violence were often their undoing. Their spheres of influence were war and slaughter.
Examples: Ares, Thor, Indra

Sun
These gods represented the sun, and, therefore, were usually shown as life-giving divinities. They were usually the noblest of the children of the King god. There spheres of influence were light, life, truth, and healing.
Examples: Apollo, Ra, Vishnu

Death
As can be expected, these gods stood for the end of life. They either came to claim humans upon their demise and presided over the abode of the dead. You did not want to meet one of these late at night. There spheres of influence were death and the afterlife.
Examples: Thanatos, Hades, Hel, Anubis

There are other commonalities such as gods of the various elements (water, earth, etc.), but I wanted to mention these categories because I find a fascinating parallel between them and the family. Obviously, the ancients saw immortals as superhuman versions of humanity. Despite their trascendent nature, I think we can learn a lot about the nature of human relationships through the study of the gods of ancient mythology.