King Minos
This article is about the role of Minos in the lore of ULTRAKILL. For the boss fight with his corpse, see The Corpse of King Minos. For his Prime Soul form, see Minos Prime. For the King of Greed who led an insurrection, see King Sisyphus.
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King Minos was the previous Judge of Hell, and the King of Lust during the Lust Renaissance. When he is first encountered in 2-4: COURT OF THE CORPSE KING, he is a corpse of his former self known as the 
The Corpse of King Minos, and is later reborn as the first Prime Soul known as 
Minos Prime in P-1: SOUL SURVIVOR.
The Corpse of King Minos is seen throughout the entirety of Lust. He initially stands far away from the player, and gets closer with every level. Eventually he towers over the level, before attacking the player directly within a subway system. With the exception of his boss fight, he looks down across the city of Lust, arms wrapped to his chest with barbed wire, slightly moving. As stated in Minos Prime's lore entry, this corpse is animated by what was once his snakes, now turned into serpentine parasites, which control the corpse to seek out sinners to punish and destroy the city in its wake.
Before his first physical encounter with the player, he is first mentioned by name in 2-2: DEATH AT 20,000 VOLTS in a book detailing the aftermath of his death at the hands of 
Gabriel.
Appearance
As a husk, Minos was an elderly man with long, white hair and a beard. He wore a crown made of metal blocks, and his eyes were covered by an ornamental laurel with serpentine and leaf details. He likely wore a green garb of Greek nobility, such as a chiton and himation. It is assumed that this form is as large as his corpse. Minos's physical enormity was due to his incredible will and recognition in life.
Minos' corpse is unnaturally long and thin, incredibly gargantuan, and decayed so that his entire body is an ashy black. Wrapped around his body is barbed wire, holding his arms around his torso, and around his gaping mouth. Metal blocks, similar to his crown, are also wrapped around his limbs, with one holding his left foot at a broken angle. His eyes are completely white and emit light in the form of a spotlight where they look. He stands crouching down, surveying around the landscape. It should be noted that his corpse is not actually moving of its own will, and is instead animated by serpentine skeleton parasites tucked within its eyes.
As a Prime Soul, he appears as a pale bluish-white translucent humanoid with a visible heart and circulatory system, snakes wrapped around his arms, and a hole for a face along with his large, blocky crown fixed atop his head. He is much smaller than his corpse, but still taller than the player.
Backstory
In real history, due to contradictory existing records of Minos in literature and mythology, it is generally accepted that there are two individuals named Minos: a "good" Minos (Minos I) that was one of the first kings of the Minoan Era of ancient Greece (circa 3000 BCE) who was the son of Zeus and ruled off of Zeus's command, and a "bad" Minos (Minos II, grandson of Minos I) that was a selfish tyrant who was responsible for the Minotaur and the Labyrinth.
While ULTRAKILL's Minos is described as "just," implying this is Minos I, the Minotaur's terminal entry mentions Minos by name in reference to it, pointing to this being Minos II. It's possible that this version of Minos is possibly a combination of both or Minos II having redeemed himself after death.
In death, Minos became the Judge of Hell. As Judge, he stood at the gates of Lust -- sinners who approached him were coerced to explain their life's sins. Minos then judged these sins, and with a wrapping of his snakes a certain number of times, he told the sinner which layer to go.
At some point, a redacted individual sculpted a demon into an abstract shape with the head of a bull and named it the 
Minotaur. They then gifted the Minotaur to Minos, hoping to establish good rapport, but Minos became terrified of it as it reminded him of his past misdeeds. He sent it and abandoned it to the Garden of Forking Paths, hoping it would be forgotten forever, just like the real Minotaur he trapped and abandoned in his mortal life.
After the angels left Hell due to God's disappearance, Minos left his station and rallied the husks of Lust, believing that loving another person is not worth eternal damnation. This began the Lust Renaissance, which completely transformed the layer from a windswept wasteland into a highly advanced, civilized society. He made himself king once again, and the husks saw him as kind and fair. However, the angels soon returned with Gabriel as their chief enforcer. Minos attempted to reason with Gabriel about the redeeming of the husks and the punishment of Lust but Gabriel struck Minos down before he could finish his sentence. A citizen of Lust described this horrific moment in a book within the suburbs of 2-2: DEATH AT 20,000 VOLTS:
"...Gabriel struck down Minos, his flesh torn asunder with torrents
of crimson pooling at his feet as we all cried out for clarity.
'Justice,' Gabriel decreed to all, with our just ruler writhing in
wailing agony, 'The Lord's Will be done.' We watched on in horror as
Minos lay broken, now waning, screaming in defiance of God's Will,
Gabriel."
After his death, his snakes were perverted into parasitic creatures, which controlled Minos' corpse and started to destroy the city and punish other sinners it could find. Gabriel inherited the title of the Judge of Hell, and Minos' soul was imprisoned by the angels as it had stood up against God's rule.
However, within imprisonment, the soul of Minos was still conscious. He witnessed his soulless corpse wreak havoc on his beloved city and people, cursing himself for his own weakness in front of the angels and his people, and he vowed to have revenge in due time.
If the Prison is broken, Minos is able to ascend to become a Prime Soul due to not only his sheer willpower and recognition in life -- both traits that also granted him the record of "Largest Husk," but also because Minos had the will to stand against the rule of God and Heaven and the power to completely revolutionize an entire layer of Hell.
In-Game
His form as a husk is only found as a painting in an abandoned house in 2-2: DEATH AT 20,000 VOLTS. This is shown at the top of the page.
His Corpse is seen throughout the layer, getting closer to the player as the levels progress. At the climax of the levels in 2-4: COURT OF THE CORPSE KING, the Corpse takes notice of V1 and battles it. It is here where the Corpse is defeated.
His Prime Soul is found in a hidden level, accessible behind a hidden door in 3-1: BELLY OF THE BEAST, which only opens after all of the previous levels have a P-Rank. If the Flesh Prison is destroyed, Minos's soul finally ascends into a Prime Soul as Minos Prime. He reiterates his vow of revenge against Gabriel and, while proclaiming his gratitude toward V1 for freeing him, notes the "crimes [...] against humanity" machines like it have committed, motivating him to fight it to the death. V1 eventually kills Minos Prime, his last words filled with guilt and regret towards his ever-increasing weakness, before screaming as his soul breaks into pieces and shatters, finally killing Minos for good.