October's word: Ta throna

Woven or embroidered patterns, flower decorations. Θρόνα ποικίλ᾽ ἔπασσε in the Iliad 10. 441, about a woman who weaves. The Scholiast of Theocritus 2.59 informs us: θρόνα· Θεσσαλοί μὲν τὰ πεποικιλμένα ζῶα, Κύπριοι δὲ τὰ ἄνθινα ἱμάτια (the people from Thessaly refer to multicoloured patterns, but the Cypriots to garments dyed with flowers or decorated with flower patterns). Hesychius mentions flowers and multicoloured patterns.

[See in this page poikiloseima– passō = to add a decorative pattern in the textile during weaving].

Poikilothronos. Ποικιλόθρον᾽ ἀθανάτ᾽ Ἀφρόδιτα…Sappho 1.1., «with the beautifully decorated multicoloured garment». It is probable that all composita in –thronos: chryso-, argyro- etc. go back to this root, which is hard to identify. Robert Beekes, Etym. Dict. of Gr., before the great difficulty, states, as usual, that the term belongs to the pre-Greek substat.