The uncontrollable nature and effects of these in the absence of more modern conditions would naturally tend toward belief in Fatalism and Destiny, which eventuated in mythological expression.
Nature Myths
Early myths had their origin in processes of Nature, or aspects of natural phenomena which, to the primitive mind, appeared supernatural. Inducing a belief in powers invisible, infinite and divine, and in future existence. With this belief these aspects were eventually invested with personality.
An example is the Greek tradition of Kronos, a native myth accounting for the separation of Heaven and Earth. Uranus (Heaven) husband to Gæa (Earth) kept his progeny Oceanus (sea) Hyperion (Sun) and Kronos (Light and Dark, or Time) in the hollows of the earth, in darkness. Kronos revolted, and forcing Uranus away, kept him for ever at a distance.
A New Zealand parallel is the Maori Tree or Forest god Tani, who effected a similar severance by lying down on the earth and pushing the Heavens away with his feet. The native belief being that man was a tree upside down, his hair forming the roots and his legs the branches.
Light and Darkness
Some myths appear in many forms, associated with rising and setting. The Greek rendering is that Kronos (Time) married Rhea and devoured all his children at birth except Zeus (Air), Poseidon (Water), and Hades (the Grave), which three Time cannot consume.
An earlier tradition is that Kronos devoured all his progeny except Zeus, for whom a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes was substituted and promptly swallowed, the child Zeus being secreted.
On arriving at adult age, Zeus compelled Kronos to disgorge, first the stone, then the other children in succession. The literal meaning being that of night covering up or swallowing the world, the disgorging being the sunrise.