After my successful series of minifigure collections from historical antiquity—check out my takes on Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Ancient Persia—my thirst for building in the realm of ancient Greece was far from slaked! I’ve been an aficionado of Greek mythology since I was a kid, and have actually had the dream of designing Greek myths in LEGO for a long time (evidenced, in part, by my old Minotaur and Chimera builds). In fact, I have been peripherally collecting elements that could be useful for this exact project for many years.
The time finally came to put some of these bricks to use. I’ve designed a total of fifteen characters, split up into two sets of seven and one solo. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed building them!
Olympian Gods
From left to right, these are our characters:
Athena, a noble war goddess. Starting off strong— Athena is one of my favorite minifigures here! I repurposed elements of the Collectible Minifigure Battle Goddess, which was pretty explicitly an Athena minifigure to begin with, but tried to give the character my own customization and flair. I love the skirt with this torso!
Poseidon, a proud sea god. Poseidon’s final appearance actually didn’t get solidified until very late in the design process. I initially gave the character a bare chest and pants, rather than this toga. However, there was never any question about whether to use the awesome shell crown!
Zeus, a tempestuous sky god. I bought these lightning pieces with Zeus specifically in mind. His garment uses two skirt fabrics arranged in different ways. I’m using my old rubber-band-as-arm-holder technique here to give Zeus a little extra dimension… and I put him literally up on a pedestal in order to put him, figuratively, up on a pedestal compared to the other gods.
Hera, an exasperated family goddess. Hera’s severity and modesty proved hard to balance against her regal status as queen of Olympus. I think the grey robe from the Dr. Who Weeping Angel, paired with a printed gold bracelet, strikes the right tone.
Hermes, a mischievous messenger god. Like Poseidon, Hermes went through a few iterations before I settled on the one you see here. I initially designed the figure with a breastplate, over-the-shoulder bag, and no orange at all! The orange color came to me as I played around, pairing some inverted Marge Simpson skirts in a technique similar to that which I employed on Zeus with an orange scarf.
Demeter, a bountiful harvest goddess. Demeter was one of the first minifigures I designed for this project. The green robe commended itself perfectly to the idea of greenery and plant life, so easily got taken off the table by her. The concept of the floral trail came about a little later, though, and the cluster of grapes at its end is a nod to an (unfortunately) discarded Dionysus minifigure I toyed around with for a while.
Hades, a glowering underworld god. One of the smallest details on this figure is also one of the details of which I’m proudest in my whole Greek mythology collection: scowling Hades’ arms are actually pulled from the peppy Dance Instructor Collectible Minifigure! Her asymmetrical black leotard and blue sweatbands become Hades’ over-the-shoulder toga and his lapis lazuli bracelets.
Mortals & Monsters
From left to right, these are our characters:
Icarus, an impulsive flyer. Icarus is definitely the most dynamically-posed character in this series. I’ve used hair from Pirates of the Carribean’s Captain Salazar, along with his splayed arms and wings, to best convey Icarus’ heartstopping free fall. I wanted to show feathers flying off as he dropped, but the logistics of positioning them proved to be a nightmare.
Achilles, an invulnerable warrior. While Achilles never came anywhere close to the Minotaur in Greek myths, I thought he’d probably not like to have one in his vicinity! I’d say Achilles is probably the most basic customization of the lot, though he does wear an extra-wrap cape originally designed for royalty. The only concrete nod I could make to this character was his exposed ankles…
The Minotaur, a savage monster. I’ve used the standard Minotaur head LEGO produced, but equipped it with longer horns to make the character more my own. His torso, largely covered by the furry bull’s head, is actually pulled from Apocalypseburg’s Chainsaw Dave.
Theseus, a brave hero. I opted to use yellow skin for these minifigures for a few reasons. First, I wanted the mythological characters to remain accessible and nonspecific as much as I could, since these stories are beloved worldwide. Second, there were too many prime Greek-looking bits with explicit yellow skin showing! Theseus’s skirt is a prime example, as are his 1/2 sleeved arms.
Marigold, an unfortunate daughter. I had to order that golden hairpiece from Guardians of the Galaxy’s Ayesha just for this purpose— and, boy oh boy, it was so worth it! Building an all-gold character was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up when I had the idea to build King Midas, since it both demonstrates his golden touch and the climax of his tale.
Midas, an unhappy father. Originally, I had Midas costumed in gold himself, but unfortunately with my yellow-skin choice for this collection, he simply got washed out. Plus, I think having only that which Midas touches by hand turning to gold makes his power a little more clear from a storytelling perspective.
Circe, a cunning sorceress. I had a white-robed Greek woman bouncing around from character to character for a while during my process. First she was to be Aphrodite, when I was trying to build just the Olympian gods; then she was to be Helen of Troy, with the warrior minifigures fighting versus each other in a Trojan War vignette. Finally, I settled on the magical Circe, because she’s such a fascinating and fun character. Besides, who could pass up the chance to include a pig?
Helios and his Chariot
To round out the collection of Greek mythology minifigures, I decided to also design a small chariot build, and put Helios, God of the Sun, at the reins. I actually put this little model together in under an hour, right before I planned to photograph all these creations!
My favorite aspect of this presentation is, of course, the glowing halo/sun I achieved behind Helios’ head. This is actually a practical effect made from real LEGO. While the rest of the build is lit with diffuse, cool lighting, I illuminated the round golden tile with a direct, warm flashlight beam. Due to the camera having difficulty picking up both lighting effects in one shot, I had to splice them together into a single photo in post-production, but I think the result was well worth that extra time.
Thanks for reading! If you have any other questions or comments about these characters, feel free to leave them in the comments below. Or, click the buttons below to see these creations in my portfolio.