PHITONISSA. The priestess of Apollo was called Pythia. The witch of Endor is called mulier Pythonem habens, "a woman having the python," I Kings 28:7, indicating that she had some aspects of the pagan priestess. Isidore, in his discussion of magicians, says that the woman who called up Samuel was Pythonissa (Etym VIII.ix.7, 21).

The fiend explains to the summoner that sometimes devils arise with dead bodies and speak as reasonably and as fairly as Samuel did to the Phitonissa, FrT 1506-1511; aware of Biblical exegesis, he adds that some say it was not Samuel. [Samuel]

Phitonissa is the medieval variant of Pythonissa; ph is the medieval rendering of aspirated /p/. The name appears once medially, FrT 1510.