Griffon Minos

Griffon Minos (天貴星 グリフォンのミーノス, Tenkisei Gurifon no Mīnosu) is a prominent character in the Hades arc of the manga and its anime adaptation, sharing a similar role with fellow Specters Wyvern Rhadamanthys and Garuda Aiacos. Together, the trio is collectively known as the 3 Judges of Hell. Minos' power lies in the Celestial Noble Star.

His name means King, referring to his status as the most powerful of all Specters.

Holy War XV Century
He invaded the shrine led by Hades in the body of Hades (Unknown) With several Specters including Worm Raimi and Bat Wimber killed by Altar Hakurei.

The Lost Canvas
Minos is sent with a group of specters in charge to invade the sanctuary shortly after the start of the holy war between Athena and Hades in the eighteenth century, but they run into a garden of poisened roses placed by the Gold Saint Pisces Albafica to stop their advance. Starting a battle that gets Albafica to end the lives of all of Minos' Group specters. Minos manages to catch the gentleman with his Cosmic Marionettion. Albafica attacks him with all his strength but Minos rejects all techniques. After a brief struggle, Minos crushes all of Albafica's bones, and is presumed dead.

He then decides to destroy Rodorio, the village near the Sanctuary that Albafica is trying so hard to protect. As he is about to kill Agasha, a young fan of Albafica, Aries Shion stops him, but neither is a match for the Cosmic Marionettion of Minos. Luckily for Shion, Albafica not dead and interrupts the battle, ending the life of Minos by stabbbing him in the heart one of his white roses, imbued with his own poisonous blood. Before dying, Minos tries to destroy Rodorio with the Gigantic Feathers Flap, but Shion's stops it with Crystal Wall.

Plot (Hades Arc)
Minos was introduced by Kurumada in vol.24 of his manga. Easily one of the most powerful warriors in all of the Underworld, Griffon Minos is a high ranking official of Hades' army. Minos is one of the infamous 3 Judges of Hell, and has a fair amount of command over the soldiers that pledge their loyalty to the Greek God Hades.

Amongst all of the Specters in the Hades arc, Minos was shown to be one of the most competent and powerful. He was able to torture Gold Saint Gemini Kanon, and survived an Eighth Sense powered "Aurora Execution" attack from Bronze Saint Cygnus Hyoga.

Griffon Minos' one and only known attack is his "Cosmic Marionettion" technique. As the name suggests, the move allows Minos to wrap his opponent with strings of Cosmo energy, entrapping and turning them into living, human marionnettes. In the anime adaptation, the Cosmic Marionettion was also able to control an enemy's technique, as shown when Minos manipulated the technique's Cosmo energy to reverse Pegasus Seiya's "Pegasus Ryu Sei Ken", deflect Andromeda Shun's "Nebular Chains", and counter both Cygnus Hyoga's "Diamond Dust" and Dragon Shiryu's "Rozan Ryu Hi Sho".

Minos first appeared fully at the recital held by Silver Saint Lyra Orphee for Hades, with fellow Specters Wyvern Rhadamanthys and Garuda Aiacos.

Along with Garuda Aiacos, Griffon Minos made another appearance later when investigating a confrontation between fellow Judge Wyvern Rhadamanthys and Gold Saint Gemini Kanon. Minos was amused that Rhadamanthys was having trouble defeating the Saint, and, to the Wyvern's dismay, took matters upon himself to finish the fight. Minos instantly trapped Kanon with his Cosmic Marionettion technique, and the Gold Saint became helpless as Minos controlled every joint in his body. To show off the might of his technique, the Judge broke one of Kanon's fingers by forcefully snapping it backwards. Kanon screamed in pain as Minos then twisted and turned Kanon's joints in every angle.

Before Minos could inflict additional punishment, Bronze Saint Phoenix Ikki made his presence known and detached the strings from Kanon's body.

Being one of the 3 Judges of Hell, Griffon Minos immediately left to investigate after he sensed 2 powerful Cosmo present in Hades' throne room. As he arrived, he was confronted by Bronze Saints Pegasus Seiya and Andromeda Shun on the courtyard—and they stood no match for him. The Griffon then approached the room, but was caught with a large blast of solar energy—the 12 Gold Saints had completed their task of piercing the Wailing Wall with sunlight (In the manga, Minos was caught with that blast just the moment he was opening the room's door). In the anime adaptation, he took on Seiya, Shun, Hyoga, Shiryu and showed dominance over them; the Bronze Saints were only saved by the destructive shock wave of the Wailing Wall.

Although damaged, the Judge was not killed by the energy and quickly chased down the Saints. As all of the other Saints invading Hell (the 13 Gold Saints) had sacrificed themselves in the war, only Bronze Saints Pegasus Seiya, Andromeda Shun, Dragon Shiryu, and Cygnus Hyoga were left to represent Athena's army. By this point, Seiya and Shun had already jumped into the Hyperdimension behind the Wailing Wall, and Shiryu was caught up with three other Specters. Hyoga decided to stay behind to deal with the Griffon.

The Cygnus attempted the block off the path by utilizing a technique similar to his master's infamous "Freezing Coffin" -- a seal made of thick ice that not even the combined efforts of several Gold Saints could destroy. However, Minos proved his worth by shattering it and sending the Bronze Saint flying. Hyoga retaliated with his "Diamond Dust" attack, but it was easily reversed. With the Cygnus lying on the ground, Minos picked him up using the Cosmic Marionettion. All appeared well for the Specter, until Minos noticed that his cosmic strings had been frozen. Taking advantage of Minos' surprise, Hyoga snapped off the strings and blasted the Judge with the "Aurora Execution".

Even the absolute zero technique proved to be ineffective at defeating the Gryphon. As Hyoga jumped into the Hyperdimension he discovered that Minos was still very much alive and waiting—a string from the "Cosmic Marionation" had attached the Specter onto the Saint, and the Judge prepared for a second round within the currents. To both men's shock, however, Minos' Griffon Surplice and body began to dissipate as the flow of the Hyperdimension crushed him. As Minos was obliterated into atoms, Hyoga realized that he was unharmed because the Cygnus Cloth had been blessed with a deity's blood—Athena's.

Techniques

 * Cosmic Marionette (コズミックマリオネーション, Kozumikku Marionēshon, "Cosmic Marionetion"): Minos uses the cosmos to create very fine and solid power cords, almost invisible, clinging to the arms and legs of the enemy, these allow Minos keep the body of his opponent difficult to control and manipulate their movements at will, as a mere marionette, bending and distorting what you want in a grotesque and frightening display of sadism. Minos can present to his opponent to a cruel torture extreme fácildade causing fractures to manage the wire, even death, can break the members with a simple touch of a finger and keep it in levitation.Asas2.png
 * Wings of Hell (ギガンティックフェザーフラップ, Gigantikku Fezā Furappu "Gigantic Flap Feathers"): Minos the air rises and moves the wings of his surplice. The beating wings of the Griffin Surplice exudes a cosmic high concentration to form a hurricane. This expands to explode into pure energy in a place devastated the frightening attack. This technique is present only in Lost Canvas, but not in the original manga.

Surplice, Star & Name
Griffons are creatures whose head and front body is that of an eagle, and whose hindquarters are of a lion. It was a symbol of nobility and its image appears on many coats of arms of noble families. Griffons appear in many world mythologies, especially Mesopotamian. In Dante's Divine Comedy, a Griffon seen pulling a chariot represents the Church led by Christ, for the Griffon reigns on earth as in heaven, like a lion is the king of the land and as the eagle is the king of heaven. They live in desert areas and were enemies of serpents and basilisks, considered demonic creatures.
 * Griffon Surplice
 * Celestial Noble Star

From the Water Margin story, Minos's star originates from the character Chai Jin, is nicknamed 'Little Whirlwind' and he charged rent.
 * Minos

In Greek myth, Minos was the King of Knossos in Crete and the son of Zeus by the Phoenician princess Europa. He later expelled his brothers from Crete in order to rule alone, and married the daughter of the Titan Helios, Pasiphae. At Knossos, there is Griffin Fresco flanked in his throne room. Minos appears in a few myths, but is most famous for the story of the Minotaur. After failing to sacrifice a beautiful white bull to Poseidon, the god of the seas punishes Minos by causing Pasiphae to lust for the now-maddened bull. She gives birth to a monster, the Minotaur (the Bull of Minos), which Minos traps in a labyrinth. In retaliation for the death of his son in Athens, Minos in later years demands the Athenians provide 7 young men and 7 young women as tributes to Crete, all of whom are then thrown into the labyrinth and devoured by the Minotaur. The grisly sacrifices end when Ariadne, Minos's daughter, betrays him and allowed the Athenian prince Theseus to kill the monster and escape Crete. After death, he and his brother Rhadamanthys became two of the Judges of the Underworld, along with their half-brother Aiacos. Among the Judges, Minos has the final vote in their decisions.

Previous Incarnations
As revealed by Masami Kurumada in his current work Saint Seiya Next Dimension, Minos' incarnation in the 18th century was known as Griffin Vermeer. Vermeer is identical to Minos in appearance and personality, sharing the same Griffon surplice and title as one of the Judges of Hell.In Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas,also authored by Masami Kurumada,the specter of Griffon is the same Minos of the original Saint Seiya manga. He battled Pisces Albafica, the previous incarnation of Pisces Aphrodite.

Minos is heartless, as he merely laughed when the Gold Saint Albafica informed him that his fellow Specters had fallen prey to the Gold Saint's trap. Minos is also an outright sadistic, as he seems to have derived some pleasure from destroying an exceptional fighter, such as Albafica, whom he temporarily triumphed over, and thus at one point making Aries Shion involved. In the end, it took the Pisces Saint's sacrificial effort to permanently destroy him, and also the Aries Saint's intervention to prevent him from annihilating everything around in retaliation for his inevitable death.

Trivia

 * One of the most noticeable physical traits of Minos is his hair covering partially his face, in the same way as Garuda Aiacos, endowing him with an ominous appearance.
 * Unlike Wyvern Rhadamanthys and Garuda Aiacos, Griffon Minos was depicted as having actual duties as a Judge—he is normally the Judge who condemns new arrivals to various Hells based on their deeds while living. Due to the war with the saints, however, Minos' position was temporarily reassigned to another lesser Specter -- Balron Lune.
 * As a villain character, the effect of Minos' existance does foil the Saints: Griffons are guardians of gold-- just as Minos takes Gold Cloths into custody; Griffon=eagle+lion, proved that the love story between Eagle Marin and Leo Aiolia was not described until Episode G.