Penthesilea's Wish [Vol.2]

Chapter Twenty-four

The responsibility of overseeing Penthesilea's remains became to Queen Joanna of Castile her own inherited duty. She saw it as to totally comply with the compact agreed upon by the many queens before her. And it was a commitment to assist the most secret society of women through the 'Consilium Reginae.' This was also at a time when the queen began to detect her own impending mortality after a personal reign of nearly half a century. And when it became clear that Penthesilea's remains might not be properly conserved or totally safe after her own passing, the time had come for their delivery over to an entirely 'New World.'

And so it was in the year 1553, feeling her own final days approaching, and with a growing urgency to begin her newest but last solitary mission, that Queen Joanna of Castile began to make the clandestine arrangements for an official burial place for the Amazon queen who had remained so close to her in heart and spirit. It would be at a most appropriate and peaceful resting place, and one she had planned for-fit for a monarch like herself, extremely far away from the vulnerabilities and uncertainties of a changing Europe.

It had been discovered by the queen that within the plain, stone box which kept Penthesilea's meticulously wrapped and mummified body, there was also a nondescript, elongated marble container. It had been, at some time in the distant past, laid lengthwise next to her body. The marble container simply had carved onto its narrow lid the Greek phrase, "ΜΗ ΜΕ ΛΗΣΜΟΝΗΣΕΙΣ,"-Do not forget me." Inside this elongated stone carton were two parchment scrolls, obviously added into the Amazon queen's sepulcher at a later date. Joanna had taken the liberty on various occasions, unbeknownst to anyone, to visit the secret crypt in the basement of the Santa Clara monastery and study under candlelight the contents of those scrolls.

The first was obviously an architectural plan for a small but elegant tomb. It was a detailed drawing of a structure which would someday feature the resting place of this bold regent who ruled a clan of women seemingly time before time. The architectural plan was to be parabolic in shape and the drawings were mathematically precise as to the exact measurements. It also featured the shape and fitting of each intended stone. Joanna had known by the Greek signature and brief directions added to the bottom of the delicate parchment that it was possibly the work of one of the most phenomenal women in the long line of Penthesilea's legacy-Hypatia, the celebrated mathematician of Alexandria.

Hypati had created on that parchment the design fr a resting place Penthesilea might one day be remembered by for all time. Joanna had imagined the mathematician had worked in secret, just as she and her own mother had done in their efforts toward the preservation of what this ancient queen stood for. Many other women had contributed to the preservation of 'Penthesilea's wish' and the memory of her. In the case of those drawings it was eleven centuries before. Now it would be Joanna's actions which must be carried out meticulously and commensurate with the 'Consilium Reginae.'

The contents of the second scroll was a text of many passages. It was scribed in Greek and titled "ΑΕΘΙΟΠΙΣ" (Aethiopis). Joana could see this was a copy of a work by an ancient Greek poet whose name was recorded as the writer at the edge of the parchment. The name was given was 'Arctinus.' Her own brief scholarship with Greek writing, under the early tutelage of Beatriz Galindo, determined that the text described scenes of battle during the legendary Trojan War. It specifically described the twelve Amazon warriors who arrived with Penthesilea to accompany the Trojans in their conflict against the Greeks.

Scanning over this narrative many times during the years, Joanna had made out that it eventually featured a close account of Penthesilea's hand-to-hand combat with the undefeatable Greek hero Achilles. And it documented her eventual death at the final thrust of the hero's spear. The text described, as well, Penthesilea's preparation for burial by the admiring Trojans. And it featured how she was interred secretly at night in a nondescript cave on the banks of the River Scamander, nearby the Trojan battlefield.

Joanna's plan to carry out the actual construction of Hypatia's schematic of Penthesilea's tomb in the New World was bold and ambitious. As an independent effort, she knew if discovered, it would only give more weight to her son Charles and his advisors of the Spanish Court that she was, and always had been, truly mad. Yet, since the first decree of her father in 1509 that she be isolated as an unfit monarch, she had carried her moniker 'Juana la Loca' with little personal shame. For now, as she planned out the details of the tomb project to be realized on the shores of the newly named 'California,' her detractors would once and for all have something certainly confirming to say about her.

At the end of her days, Joanna reflected back and related heavily to Penthesilea as a queen, thrust into a difficult role. She shared her plight soulfully, and as a woman recalled the tragedies and joys of life. But like her own trials and victories, she sensed that this Amazon woman must have balanced her sorrows with great joy and accomplishments. As the aging Spanish queen considered her own impending mortality over her final years, she cherished the thought of any great leader being left to rest on those silent Californian cliffs for eternity. It would be her own greatest wish to give to this ruler a lasting place of reverence and to carry forth the torch of what Penthesilea stood further into an unknown world.

And so it was in 1553, at the age of seventy-four and having been isolated for long periods-raising her six children and participating sporadically in affairs of state, that Joanna of Castile set out to implement a project which could only be defined as 'insane.' to many. It would be especially seen as absurd by her son, his legion of advisors, and most dishearteningly, to her descendants and own loyal subjects. That was, unless-in the silent spirit of the Sisterhood, they were never to know of it.

In the end, Joanna's secret project would involve stone cutters, pilots, ships, money, and time. Yet it was all within the actual grasp of this remarkable queen, utilizing her last remaining power, wealth and influences to carry it out. The secret construction of Penthesilea's marble resting place-conceived and specified by a founding member of her own secret society, Hypatia of Alexandria, could be and would be attained. And it would be located in a realm only a queen of Joanna's status and holdings could realistically insure and accomplish-there on a mythical "island" at the very edge of the world. The place they now called "California."

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