Cross-section of Dante's universe: Hell under Jerusalem, Mount Purgatory at the antipode, the nine heavens around them, with the traveller's place marked.

The Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri, La Divina Commedia

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Inferno I

In the poem

The day is the poem: one hundred cantos of 14 minutes 24 seconds each. Inferno begins at midnight, Purgatorio at 08:09:36, Paradiso at 16:04:48. Dante's road is a single straight line, down from Jerusalem to the centre of the Earth, out at the far side, up the mountain and on through the nine heavens. The sun marks the hour on its sphere, noon over Jerusalem at the top and noon over Purgatory at the foot. Translation by Longfellow, 1867.