Throne

These thrones pictured above are metaphorical.
They're places your psyche goes when under the medicinal influence of Pharmakon (drugs) or Pharmakeia (drug sorcery).

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:

Another ancient explanation is even more direct:

Eustathius explains:

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:

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

The cluster is exact:

• Ground animal material. On line 58
• 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:

• θηρίον literally means a beast/animal creature-singular here.
• θηριακά are the beast-related class of pharmaka, especially preparations involving venomous creatures, their products, bites, poisons, and antidotes.
• θηριακή develops into the technical term “theriac.”
• This sits alongside categories such as βοτανικά and μεταλλικά-botanical and mineral/metal-derived pharmaka.

See Pharmakon

Then:

• κόκκινον - scarlet - The word derives from κόκκος, the kermes insect from which scarlet-red dye was produced.
  • Tyrian purple dye was used in venom recipes as a caustic agent, porphura is a word that was considered purple, crimson, scarlett, blue. And these colors were associated with royal qualities...

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 riding the beastly venoms, on her throne, causes the nations to drink her preparation, her "wine" from her "cup", 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 throne (θρόνος) marks the person who has survived, mastered and been transformed by the throna (θρόνα).

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

See Also

• Queen of Babylon
• Pharmakon