Okay, since you ask. It's in the Pacific, slightly less than halfway between New Zealand's North Island and Chile.
It's something that has bothered me in my endless quest for precision since I read The Divine Comedy in my teens. Satan dwells at the centre of the Earth, that being (logically) the furthest he could fall from Heaven without starting to rise again. This is also (equally logically) the lowest point of the pit of the Inferno, a.k.a. Hell, which was created by the very earth itself fleeing Satan's presence.
This displaced earth all piled up into the mountain of Purgatory, situated at the antipodes of Jerusalem. And the antipodes of Jerusalem is (are?) ... in the Pacific, slightly less than halfway between New Zealand’s North Island and Chile.
This information brought to you by this fantastic site which will guarantee hours of endless fun. Pick any spot on the surface of the planet and see what lies opposite it.
Embarrassed confession time. Out of interest I checked to see where our antipodes is. Good grief, I thought, it’s slap bang on the international date line. What were the odds?
Oh ...
Yes ...
Right.
"antipodes of Jerusalem"
ReplyDeleteIt's been a long time since GCSE english, but shouldn't that be "antipode of Jerusalem"?
It's been even longer since O-level English ...
ReplyDeleteThe office OED admits to the existence of antipode, but only as a back-formation from antipodes, which is from the Greek, "having the feet opposite". So I think antipodes was the original and could be taken in the singular. I agree it sounds odd, hence my is/are uncertainty.
As I recall the location of Rl'yeh, where Cthulhu lies dreaming until the day the Stars are Right, is about there somewhere also. Good ol' HPL.
ReplyDelete"When I feel squamous
ReplyDeleteAll I has to does
Is dre-e-e-a-m
Dream, dream dream ..."
BTW, the grammatical occlusion that made the above rhyme remotely possible was because I slipped into lolcraft.
ReplyDelete