Throne

Introduction

The Greek forms are:

• τὰ θρόνα - flowers, herbs, prepared magical substances, pharmaka.
• ὁ θρόνος - the physical seat or throne.
• θρόνωσις - enthronement, including ritual enthronement during initiation.

They are formally treated as distinct nouns, and their exact etymological relationship remains disputed. But their phonetic and ritual convergence is undeniable. An ancient hearer could hear θρόνα / θρόνος / θρόνωσις together, especially when enthronement occurred during an induced initiatory state.

Throna are explicitly pharmaka

An ancient dialectal gloss preserved in the scholia says:

Αἰτωλοὶ δὲ τὰ φάρμακα [θρόνα καλοῦσιν].

The Aetolians call pharmaka throna.

Another ancient explanation is even more direct:

Θρόνα τὰ θραύοντα τὸν νοῦν ἢ τὰ θροῦν ποιοῦντα ἐν τῷ νοΐ.

Throna: things that break/disrupt the mind, or things that produce a disturbance within the mind.

Eustathius explains:

Θρόνα δὲ κυρίως μὲν τὰ ἐκ θηρίων ἢ τὰ ἐκ γῆς ἀναθορόντα ὀνήσιμα φάρμακα.

Properly, throna are the beneficial pharmaka arising from thēria or from the Earth.

That is stronger than simply “herbs.” Throna may be substances obtained from plants/Earth or from animals-ἐκ θηρίων. That leaves room for venom and other animal-derived pharmaka. The surviving ancient glosses are collected with their sources ⁠here.

Theocritus shows throna being smeared

In Theocritus’ Pharmakeutria, the woman first prepares an animal-derived drink:

σαύραν τοι τρίψασα κακὸν ποτὸν αὔριον οἰσῶ.

Having ground up a lizard, tomorrow I shall bring you a potent/harmful drink.

She immediately orders Thestylis to take the throna and smear them upon the entrance:

Θεστυλί, νῦν δὲ λαβοῖσα τὺ τὰ θρόνα ταῦθ᾽ ὑπόμαξον
τᾶς τήνω φλιᾶς καθ᾽ ὑπέρτερον…

Thestylis, now take these throna and secretly knead/rub them onto the upper part of his doorway…

The cluster is exact:

• Ground animal material.
• A prepared drink: ποτόν.
• Throna.
• Smearing/application: ὑπόμαξον.
• A rite intended to alter another person’s mind and desire.

⁠Theocritus, Pharmakeutria 2.58–62, Greek text

Throne as drug-initiation language

So the sequence makes sense:

1. The candidate receives or undergoes the throna.
2. The induced state takes the candidate to the underworld, and return intact.
3. During the initiation the candidate is seated in θρόνωσις, ritual enthronement.
4. Someone who successfully “rides” the throna becomes qualified for the actual θρόνος.
5. The physical throne consequently signifies more than political appointment: it signifies someone who has undergone and mastered the initiation.

In that ritual register, “sitting on the throne” can indeed operate like drug slang: being seated within, mounted upon, or stabilized inside the pharmakon-induced condition.

The throne is the outward office.

The throna are the inward ordeal that qualifies the ruler.

Revelation now reads far more tightly

John says:

Then:

And:

She is simultaneously under the influence and in command of the scene:

You thought it was the Beast who was in charge of this scene.
But it's the Queen of Babylon, the Amazonian.

She is intoxicated by blood, causes the nations to drink her prepared wine, and leads them through pharmakea (φαρμακεία). The serpent gives the beast (thērion) its power and throne; the Queen sits upon and rides that serpent-derived power.

Thus “riding the beast” describes mastery of the throna-including the animal-derived pharmakon ἐκ θηρίων. The physical θρόνος marks the person who has survived, mastered and been transformed by the θρόνα.

She is Queen precisely because she can ride the venom without being destroyed by it.

See Also

• Queen of Babylon
• Pharmakon