Academus (/ˌækəˈdiːməs/;Ancient Greek:Ἀκάδημος,romanized: Akádemos), alsoHecademus (Ancient Greek:Ἑκάδημος,romanized: Hekádemos), was anAttichero inGreek mythology. The site of Academus, either agrove or a park, which became known asAkademeia, lies on theCephissus, sixstadia fromAthens. He is the namesake of theAcademy founded byPlato, who taught his students at the site, and as such of the modernEnglish wordacademy, signifying an institution of higher learning.[1]
Academus, the site, was sacred toAthena, the goddess ofwisdom, and other immortals; it had since theBronze Age sheltered her religious cult, which was perhaps associated with the hero-gods, theDioskouroi (Castor andPolydeukes), and for the hero Akademos. Byclassical times the name of the place had evolved into theAkademeia. It had also earlier been calledEcademia (Ἑκαδημία).[2]
According toPlutarch,Cimon converted this, "waterless and arid spot into a well watered grove, which he provided with clear running-tracks and shady walks".[3] Itssacred grove furnished theolive oil that was distributed as prizes in thePanathenaic Games and contained in the finely decoratedPanathenaic amphorae presented to the winners.
Plutarch, in hisbiography of theAthenian kingTheseus (the slayer of theMinotaur), writes that, after being widowed and reaching age 50, the king abducted the 12-year-old childHelen (long before she marriedMenelaus, metParis and was the cause of theTrojan War). Due to this outrage, her twin brothersCastor and Pollux invadedAttica to liberate their sister and threatened to destroyAthens. Academus saved the city by telling them where she was hidden, atAphidnae. Also for this reasonTyndareus (aSpartan king and the father of Castor and step father of Helen) showed Academus much gratitude. As noted byPlutarch: "For this reason he was honored during his life by the Tyndaridae, and often afterwards when the Lacedaemonians invaded Attica and laid waste all the country round about, they spared the Academy, for the sake of Academus."[4]
Academe was the site ofPlato'sAcademy and within its groves, he gave his lectures. According toDiogenes Laertius,Dion, "bought for Plato the little garden which is in the Academy".[5] Diogenes Laertius, notesTimon of Phlius observes that there Plato "a big fish, but a sweet-voiced speaker, musical in prose as the cicada who, perched on the trees of Hecademus, pours forth a strain as delicate as a lily".[6]
The phrase "the groves of Academe" comes fromHorace'sEpistles, 20 b.c.):Atque inter silvas academi quaerere verum (To seek for truth in the groves of Academe)'.John Milton, inParadise Regained book 4, 244-245, uses the phrase: "See there the Olive Grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic Bird Trills her thick-warbl'd notes the summer long".Mary McCarthy made the phrase the title of her satirical novelThe Groves of Academe.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Academus".Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.