page_title: Platonic Academy
section_title: Site
hierarchical_section_title: Platonic Academy / Site
caption_attribution_description: Ελληνικά: Αρχαία οδός προς την Ακαδημία Πλάτωνος. Κεραμεικός. English: Ancient road from Kerameikos to Plato's Academy. From Kerameikos side.
context_page_description: The Academy was founded by Plato in c. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC. The Platonic Academy was destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC.
context_section_description: The Akademia was a school outside the city walls of ancient Athens. It was located in or beside a grove of olive trees dedicated to the goddess Athena, which was on the site even before Cimon enclosed the precincts with a wall. The archaic name for the site was Ἑκαδήμεια (Hekademia), which by classical times evolved into Ἀκαδημία (Akademia), which was explained, at least as early as the beginning of the 6th century BC, by linking it to "Akademos", a legendary Athenian hero.
  The site of the Academy was sacred to Athena; it had sheltered her religious cult since the Bronze Age. The site was perhaps also associated with the twin hero-gods Castor and Polydeuces (the Dioscuri), since the hero Akademos associated with the site was credited with revealing to the brothers where the abductor Theseus had hidden their sister Helen. Out of respect for its long tradition and its association with the Dioscuri – who were patron gods of Sparta – the Spartan army would not ravage these original "groves of Academe" when they invaded Attica. Their piety was not shared by the Roman Sulla, who had the sacred olive trees of Athena cut down in 86 BC to build siege engines.
  Among the religious observances that took place at the Akademeia was a torchlit night race from altars within the city to Prometheus' altar in the Akademeia. The road to Akademeia was lined with the gravestones of Athenians, and funeral games also took place in the area as well as a Dionysiac procession from Athens to the Hekademeia and then back to the city.
  The site of the Academy is located near Colonus, approximately 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) north of Athens' Dipylon gates.
caption: Ancient road to the Academy.
exif: {}