Academy
A place of learning or scholarly institution, from Akademos, in whose sacred grove Plato founded his school.
The Meaning of Academy
Akademos was an Attic hero who, according to myth, revealed to the divine twins Castor and Polydeuces where Theseus had hidden their sister Helen. In gratitude, the Spartans always spared his estate during their invasions of Attica. His grove, about a mile northwest of Athens' walls, became a public park with olive trees and running tracks. Around 387 BCE, the philosopher Plato began teaching in this grove, and his school — the Academy — operated for nearly nine hundred years until the Roman emperor Justinian closed it in 529 CE. The Academy became the model for all subsequent institutions of higher learning. The word passed through Latin into every European language: "academy" in English, "académie" in French, "accademia" in Italian. Today it describes everything from the Royal Academy to the Academy Awards, all tracing back to a hero's olive grove where Plato taught his students to think.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
Plato's Academy operated continuously for 916 years — from 387 BCE to 529 CE — making it the longest-running educational institution in Western history.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Academy
💭 conceptLanguage and education
An English word for an institution of learning, derived from the Akademeia, the grove outside Athens where Plato established his school of philosophy in 387 BCE
Stoicism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A Hellenistic school teaching virtue, rational self-control, and acceptance of fate as the path to flourishing
Epicureanism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A Hellenistic school teaching that pleasure through modesty, knowledge, and friendship is the highest good
Pygmalion Effect
💭 conceptPsychology and education
A psychological phenomenon in which higher expectations lead to improved performance, named after the mythological sculptor whose statue came to life because he believed in her so completely
Paideia
💭 concepteducation, culture
The complete cultural education that formed the ideal Greek citizen — encompassing literary, musical, gymnastic, and philosophical training to cultivate the whole person.
Mentor
💭 conceptLanguage and education
An English word meaning a wise and trusted guide or teacher, derived from Mentor, the friend of Odysseus who was entrusted with the education of his son Telemachus
History
💭 conceptLanguage and scholarship
An English word for the study and record of past events, derived from the Greek historia meaning inquiry or investigation, first used by Herodotus in the fifth century BCE
Neoplatonism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A late antique philosophical system teaching that all reality emanates from a transcendent, ineffable One
Sophistes
💭 conceptphilosophy, education
A professional teacher of wisdom — originally honorable, then systematically contested as a label for those who sold rhetorical skill without genuine knowledge.
Theoria
💭 conceptPhilosophy and Contemplation
The Greek practice of contemplative observation, originally a sacred embassy sent to witness religious festivals.
Anamnesis
💭 conceptPlato's theory that learning is remembering
Plato's doctrine that the soul possesses innate knowledge from before birth, and that learning is really recollection.
Golden Bough
💭 conceptArtefact
A magical branch of gold that granted the living safe passage into and out of the underworld