Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Murex

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

MUREX. A kind of fish, with a sharp-pointed and twisted shell, poetically given to the Tritons for a trumpet (Val. Flacc. iii. 726.), as in the annexed example (Murex/1.1) from a terra-cotta lamp; also used as a bottle for holding unguents (Mart. iii. 82.); and in ornamenting grottos (Ov. Met. viii. 563.), of which examples are still seen in the gardens of two houses at Pompeii.

2. In a secondary sense, any thing which has a rough and prickly surface, with projecting points, like the end of the murex shell; as a rock or stone full of acuminated protuberances (Plin. H. N. xix. 6. Virg. Aen. v. 205.); a box or case set with spikes inside (Gell. vi. 4.); and, as some think, a very sharp bit, armed with spikes (Stat. Achill. i. 221. murice fraenat acuto Delphinas), like the lupatum, or the bits formerly used by the Mamelukes; but as the passage of Statius has reference to a Triton and his dolphins, the more poetical interpretation would be, that he checks their course with the sound of his sharp-pointed shell instead of a bit.

3. Murex ferreus. A caltrop; an instrument made with four spikes of iron, adjusted in such a manner that when thrown upon the ground from any distance one of them always stood upright, as shown by the annexed example (Murex/3.1) from an original. It was used in ancient warfare to impede the advance of cavalry and disable the horses. Val. Max. iii. 7. 2. Curt. iv. 17.

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  Murex/1.1
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  Murex/3.1