Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Pistris

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. 

PIS'TRIS or PRIS'TIS, and PIS'TRIX or PRIS'TIX (πίστρις and πρίστις). A sea-monster (Florus, iii. 5. 16. Plin. H. N. ix. 2.); but always represented by the ancient artists with the same characteristic features as are exhibited in the annexed illustration (Pistris/1.1) from a painting at Pompeii, viz. the head of a dragon, the neck and breast of a beast, with fins in the place of front legs, and the tail and body of a fish (Virg. Aen. iii. 427.); a form generally adopted by the early Christian artists to represent the whale which swallowed Jonah.

2. The name given to a particular class of ships of war (Liv. xxxv. 26. Polyb. xvii. 1. 1.), doubtless from a certain resemblance in general form to the above figure; perhaps from the bow rising very high out of the water, like the head and neck there portrayed. In Virgil (Aen. v. 116.) pistris is the adopted name of a vessel, after the image of this monster borne on its bows as a figure-head (insigne). See the woodcut at p. 352.

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  Pistris/1.1