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Plato

Plato

Plato (Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn) (ca. May 21? 427 BC – ca. 347 BC) In his youth he was given the nickname Plato ("broad"), which referres to his athletic countenance, his wrestling stance. Born Aristocles, was an immensely influential classical Greek philosopher, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, writer, and founder of the Academy in Athens. In countries speaking Arabic, Turkish, Persian, or Urdu, he is called Eflatun, which means a spring of water, and, metaphorically, of knowledge. Plato lectured extensively at the Academy, but he also wrote on many philosophical issues. The most important writings of Plato are his dialogues, although a handful of epigrams also survive, and some letters have come down to us under his name. It is believed that all of Plato's authentic dialogues survive. However, some dialogues ascribed to Plato by the Greeks are now considered by the consensus of scholars to be either suspect (e.g., First Alcibiades, Clitophon) or probably spurious (such as Demodocus, or the Second Alcibiades). Socrates is often a character in the dialogues of Plato. How much of the content and argument of any given dialogue is Socrates' point of view, and how much of it is Plato's, is heavily disputed. However, Plato was doubtless strongly influenced by Socrates' teachings, so many of the ideas presented, at least in his early works, were probably borrowings.

Biography

Plato was born in Athens or Aegina in May or December in 428 BC or 427 BC. He was raised in a moderately well-to-do aristocratic family. His father was named Ariston, and his mother Perictione. His family claimed descent from the ancient Athenian kings, and he was related—though there is disagreement as to exactly how—to the prominent politician Critias. Plato's own real name was Aristocles; his nickname, Plato, originated from wrestling. Since Plato means broad, it probably refers either to his physical appearance or to his wrestling stance or style. Plato became a pupil of Socrates in his youth, and—at least according to his own account—he attended his master's trial, though not his execution. He was deeply affected by the city's treatment of Socrates, and much of his early work records his memories of his teacher. It is suggested that much of his ethical writing is in pursuit of a society where similar injustices could not occur. Plato was also deeply influenced by a number of prior philosophers, including: the Pythagoreans, whose notions of numerical harmony have clear echoes in Plato's notion of the Forms; Anaxagoras, who taught Socrates and who held that the mind, or reason, pervades everything; and Parmenides, who argued for the unity of all things and may have influenced Plato's concept of the soul. When he was 40 years old, Plato founded one of the earliest known organized schools in Western civilization on a plot of land in the Grove of Academe. The Academy was "a large enclosure of ground which was once the property of a citizen at Athens named Academus... some, however, say that it received its name from an ancient hero" (Robinson, Arch. Graec. I i 16), and it operated until AD 529, when it was closed by Justinian I of Byzantium, who saw it as a threat to the propagation of Christianity. Many intellectuals were schooled in the Academy, the most prominent one being Aristotle.

Work

Aristotle.]]

Themes

Unlike Socrates, Plato wrote down his philosophical views, leaving behind a considerable number of manuscripts. In Plato's writings are debates concerning the best possible form of government, featuring adherents of aristocracy, democracy, monarchy as well as other issues. A central theme is the conflict between nature and convention, concerning the role of heredity and the environment on human intelligence and personality long before the modern "nature versus nurture" debate began in the time of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, with its modern continuation in such controversial works as The Mismeasure of Man and The Bell Curve. Another key distinction and theme in the Platonic corpus is the dichotomy between knowledge and opinion, which foreshadow modern debates between David Hume and Immanuel Kant, and has been taken up by postmodernists and their opponents, more commonly as the distinction between the 'objective' and the 'subjective'. Even the story of the lost city or continent of Atlantis came to us as an illustrative story told by Plato in his Timaeus and Critias.

Form and basis

Plato wrote mainly in the form known as dialogue. In the early dialogues, several characters discuss a topic by asking questions of one another. Socrates figures prominently, and a lively, more disorganized form of elenchos/dialectic is present; these are called the Socratic Dialogues. The nature of these dialogues changed a great deal over the course of Plato's life. It is generally agreed that Plato's earlier works are more closely based on Socrates' thought, whereas his later writing increasingly breaks away from the views of his former teacher. In the middle dialogues, Socrates becomes a mouthpiece for Plato's own philosophy, and the question-and-answer style is more pro forma: the main figure represents Plato and the minor characters have little to say except "yes", "of course" and "very true". The late dialogues read more like treatises, and Socrates is often absent or quiet. It is assumed that while some of the early dialogues could be based on Socrates' actual conversations, the later dialogues were written entirely by Plato. The question of which, if any, of the dialogues are truly Socratic is known as the Socratic problem. The ostensible mise-en-scene of a dialogue distances both Plato and a given reader from the philosophy being discussed; one can choose between at least two options of perception: either to participate in the dialogues, in the ideas being discussed, or choose to see the content as expressive of the personalities contained within the work. The dialogue format also allows Plato to put unpopular opinions in the mouth of unsympathetic characters, such as Thrasymachus in The Republic.

Metaphysics

:Main article: Platonic idealism Platonism has traditionally been interpreted as a form of metaphysical dualism, sometimes referred to as Platonic or Exaggerated Realism. According to this reading, Plato's metaphysics divides the world into two distinct aspects: the intelligible world of "forms", and the perceptual world we see around us. The perceptual world consists of imperfect copies of the intelligible forms or ideas. These forms are unchangeable and perfect, and are only comprehensible by the use of the intellect or understanding—i.e., a capacity of the mind that does not include sense-perception or imagination. This division can be found before Plato in Zoroastrian philosophy (6th century BC), in which the dichotomy is referenced as the Minu (intelligence) and Giti (perceptual) worlds. The Zoroastrian ideal city, Shahrivar, also exhibits certain similarities with Plato's Republic. Republic In the Republic Books VI and VII, Plato uses a number of metaphors to explain his metaphysical views: the metaphor of the sun, the well-known allegory of the cave, and most explicitly, the divided line. Taken together, these metaphors convey a complex, and, in places, difficult theory: there is something called The Form of the Good (often interpreted as Plato's God), which is the ultimate object of knowledge and which, as it were, sheds light on all the other forms (i.e., universals: abstract kinds and attributes), and from which all other forms "emanate". The Form of the Good does this in somewhat the same way as the sun sheds light on, or makes visible and "generates" things, in the perceptual world. (See Plato's metaphor of the sun) In the perceptual world, the particular objects we see around us bear only a dim resemblance to the more ultimately real forms of Plato's intelligible world; it is as if we are seeing shadows of cut-out shapes on the walls of a cave, which are mere representations of the reality outside the cave, illuminated by the sun. (See Plato's allegory of the cave) We can imagine everything in the universe represented on a line of increasing reality; it is divided once in the middle, and then once again in each of the resulting parts. The first division represents that between the intelligible and the perceptual worlds. This is followed by a corresponding division in each of these worlds: the segment representing the perceptual world is divided into segments representing "real things" on the one hand, and shadows, reflections and representations on the other. Similarly, the segment representing the intelligible world is divided into segments representing first principles and most general forms, on the one hand, and more derivative, "reflected" forms, on the other. (See the divided line of Plato) The form of government derived from this philosophy turns out to be one of a rigidly fixed hierarchy of hereditary social classes, in which the arts are mostly suppressed for the good of the state, the size of the city and its social classes is determined by mathematical formulae, and eugenic measures are applied secretly by rigging the lotteries in which the right to reproduce is allocated. The exact relationship of such a government to the lofty philosophy presented in the book has been debated. Plato's metaphysics, and particularly its dualism between the intelligible and the perceptual, would inspire later Neoplatonic thinkers, such as Plotinus and Gnostics, and many other metaphysical realists. Plato also influenced Saint Justin Martyr. For more on Platonic realism in general, see Platonic realism and the Forms. Although this interpretation of Plato's writings (particularly the Republic) has enjoyed immense popularity throughout the long history of Western philosophy, it is also possible to interpret his suggestions more conservatively, favoring a more epistemological than metaphysical reading of such famous metaphors as the Cave and the Divided Line. There are obvious parallels between the Cave allegory and the life of Plato's teacher Socrates (who was killed in his attempt to "open the eyes" of the Athenians), for example. This example reveals the dramatic complexity that often lies under the surface of Platos' writing (remember that in the Republic, it is Socrates who relates the story.).

Epistemology

Plato also had some influential opinions on the nature of knowledge and learning which he propounded in the Meno, which began with the question of whether virtue can be taught, and proceeded to expound the concepts of recollection, learning as the discovery of pre-existing knowledge, and right opinion, opinions which are correct but have no clear justification.

The state

Plato's philosophical views had many societal implications, especially on the idea of an ideal state or government. There is some discrepancy between his early and later views. Some of the most famous doctrines are contained in the Republic during his middle period. Plato asserts that individual people have three distinctive functions, just like the soul:
- Productive (Workers) - The laborers, carpenters, plumbers, masons, merchants, farmers, ranchers, etc. These correspond to the "appetite" part of the soul.
- Protective (Warriors) - Those who are adventurous, strong, brave, in love with danger; in the armed forces. These correspond to the "spirit" part of the soul.
- Governing (Rulers) - Those who are intelligent, rational, self-controlled, in love with wisdom, well suited to make decisions for the community. These correspond to the "reason" part of the soul and are very few. According to this model, the principles of Athenian democracy (as it existed in his day) are rejected as only a few are fit to rule. Instead of rhetoric and persuasion, Plato says reason and wisdom should govern. This does not equate to tyranny, despotism or oligarchy, however. As Plato puts it: :"Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophize, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils,... nor, I think, will the human race." (Republic 473c-d) Plato describes these "philosopher kings" as "those who love the sight of truth" (Republic 475c) and supports the idea with the analogy of a captain and his ship or a doctor and his medicine. Sailing and health are not things that everyone is qualified to practice by nature. A large part of the Republic then addresses how the educational system should be set up to produce these philosopher kings.

Platonic scholarship

oligarchy Plato's thought is often compared with that of his most famous student, Aristotle, whose reputation during the Western Middle Ages so completely eclipsed that of Plato that the Scholastic philosophers referred to Aristotle as "the Philosopher". However, in the Byzantine Empire, the study of Plato continued. The Medieval scholastic philosophers did not have access to the works of Plato—nor the knowledge of Greek needed to read them. Plato's original writings were essentially lost to Western civilization until they were brought from Constantinople in the century before its fall, by George Gemistos Plethon. Medieval scholars knew of Plato only through translations into Latin from the translations into Arabic by Persian and Arab scholars. These scholars not only translated the texts of the ancients, but expanded them by writing extensive commentaries and interpretations on Plato's and Aristotle's works (see Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Averroes). Only in the Renaissance, with the general resurgence of interest in classical civilization, did knowledge of Plato's philosophy become widespread again in the West. Many of the greatest early modern scientists and artists who broke with Scholasticism and fostered the flowering of the Renaissance, with the support of the Plato-inspired Lorenzo de Medici, saw Plato's philosophy as the basis for progress in the arts and sciences. By the 19th century, Plato's reputation was restored, and at least on par with Aristotle's. Notable Western philosophers have continued to examine Plato's work since that time, diverging from traditional academic approaches with their own philosophy as a basis. Nietzsche attacked Plato's moral and political theories, Heidegger expounded on Plato's obfuscation of Being, and Karl Popper argued in in The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) that Plato's proposal for a government system in The Republic was prototypically totalitarian.

Bibliography

Plato's writings (most of them dialogues) have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts. Those works ascribed to Plato that have a separate Wikipedia article can be found in :Category:Dialogues of Plato

By tetralogy

One tradition regarding the arrangement of Plato's texts is according to tetralogies. This scheme is ascribed by Diogenes Laertius to an ancient scholar and court astrologer to Tiberius named Thrasyllus. In the list below, works by Plato are marked (1) if there is no consensus among scholars as to whether Plato is the author, and (2) if scholars generally agree that Plato is not the author of the work. Unmarked works are assumed to have been written by Plato.

Tetralogies


- I. Euthyphro, (The) Apology (of Socrates), Crito, Phaedo
- II. Cratylus, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman
- III. Parmenides, Philebus, (The) Symposium, Phaedrus
- IV. First Alcibiades (1), Second Alcibiades (2), Hipparchus (2), (The) (Rival) Lovers (2)
- V. Theages (2), Charmides, Laches, Lysis
- VI. Euthydemus, Protagoras, Gorgias, Meno
- VII. (Greater) Hippias (major) (1), (Lesser) Hippias (minor), Ion, Menexenus
- VIII. Clitophon (1), (The) Republic, Timaeus, Critias
- IX. Minos (2), (The) Laws, Epinomis (2), Letters (1)

Works not in tetralogies

The remaining works were transmitted under Plato's name, most of them already considered spurious in antiquity:
- Axiochus (2), Definitions (2), Demodocus (2), Epigrams, Eryxias (2), Halcyon (2), On Justice (2), On Virtue (2), Sisyphus (2)

Stephanus pagination

The usual system for making unique references to sections of the text by Plato derives from a 16th century edition of Plato's works by Henricus Stephanus. An overview of Plato's writings according to this system can be found in the Stephanus pagination article.

Loeb Classical Library

James Loeb provided a very popular edition of Plato's works, still in print in the 21st century: see Loeb Classical Library#Plato for how Plato's works were named in Loeb's publications.

See also


- Important publications in Western philosophy
- Mitchell Miller
- Alexander Nehamas
- Neoplatonism
- Platonic love
- Platonism

References


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- Oxford University Press publishes scholarly editions of Plato's Greek texts in the Oxford Classical Texts series, and some translations in the Clarendon Plato Series.
- Harvard University Press publishes the hardbound series Loeb Classical Library, containing Plato's works in Greek, with English translations on facing pages.
- [http://www.lesbelleslettres.com Les Belles Lettres] also publishes Plato's complete works in Greek with French translations.

External links


-
  - [http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/authrec?fk_authors=93 Works by Plato] at Project Gutenberg
  - [http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/authrec?fk_authors=688 Spurious and doubtful works] at Project Gutenberg
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- [http://www.philosophicalsociety.com/Archives/Plato%20And%20The%20Theory%20Of%20Forms.htm "Plato & The Theory of Forms," at Philosophical Society.com]
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
  - [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/ Plato]
  - [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-ethics/ Plato's Ethics]
  - [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-friendship/ Friendship and Eros]
  - [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-metaphysics/ Middle Period Metaphysics and Epistemology]
  - [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-utopia/ Plato on Utopia]
  - [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-rhetoric/ Rhetoric and Poetry]
- Other Articles
  - [http://www.philosophicalsociety.com/Archives/The%20Platonic%20Conception%20of%20Philosophy.htm "The Platonic Conception of Philosophy"] Category:427 BC births Category:347 BC deaths Category:Ancient Athenians Category:Ancient Greek philosophers Category:Classical Humanists Category:Famous drinkers Category:Platonism ko:플라톤 ms:Plato ja:プラトン simple:Plato th:เพลโต

May 21

May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). There are 224 days remaining.

Events


- 996 - Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1502 - The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese navigator João da Nova.
- 1674 - John Sobieski is elected by the nobility to be the King of Poland.
- 1725 - The Order of Alexander Nevsky was instituted in Russia by an empress Catherine I.
- 1758 - Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
- 1856 - Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
- 1871 - French Government troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week" some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.
- 1879 - War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique, Chile, battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
- 1881 - The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
- 1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
- 1894 - 22-year-old French Anarchist Emile Henry is executed by guillotine.
- 1904 - Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) founded in Paris.
- 1924 - University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing."
- 1927 - Charles Lindbergh touchs down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1932 - Amelia Earhart, because of bad weather, lands in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1934 - Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint each of its citizens.
- 1936 - Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon became one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
- 1941 - World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first United States ship sunk by a German U-boat.
- 1945 - American screen legend Humphrey Bogart marries actress Lauren Bacall.
- 1956 - Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
- 1958 - United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area.
- 1961 - American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
- 1966 - Cassius Clay beat Henry Cooper in the sixth round at Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, north London.
- 1979 - White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
- 1980 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back opens in theaters.
- 1981 - Pierre Mauroy becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1991 - Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
- 1998 - At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel, suspended for bringing a gun to school, shoots a semi-automatic rifle into a room filled with students, killing 2 wounding 25 others after killing his parents at home.
- 1998 - Reproductive rights: In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
- 2000 - A chartered British Aerospace Jetstream 31 crashes near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, killing 19.
- 2003 - An earthquake hits northern Algeria, killing more than 2,000 people.
- 2004 - Sherpa Pemba Dorje climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from the previous year.
- 2004 - Stanislav Petrov is awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983
- 2005 - In Kiev, Ukraine, Greece wins the fiftieth Eurovision Song Contest with "My Number One" performed by Elena Paparizou.

Births


- 427 BC - Plato, Greek philosopher (d. 347 BC)
- AD 1471 - Albrecht Dürer, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1528)
- 1526 - King Philip II of Spain (d. 1598)
- 1664 - Giulio Alberoni, Italian cardinal and statesman (d. 1754)
- 1688 - Alexander Pope, English poet (d. 1744)
- 1763 - Joseph Fouché, French statesman (d. 1820)
- 1780 - Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer and philanthropist (d. 1845)
- 1843 - Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1914)
- 1844 - Henri Rousseau, French artist (d. 1910)
- 1850 - Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian volcanologist (d. 1914)
- 1851 - Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1925)
- 1853 - Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (d. 1905)
- 1860 - Willem Einthoven, Dutch inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1927)
- 1863 - Eugen, Archduke of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1954)
- 1873 - Hans Berger, German neuroscientist (d. 1941)
- 1898 - Armand Hammer, American physician, entrepreneur, oil magnate, and art collector (d. 1990)
- 1901 - Horace Heidt, American band leader (d. 1986)
- 1901 - Sam Jaffe, American film producer (d. 2000)
- 1902 - Earl Averill, baseball player (d. 1983)
- 1902 - Marcel Lajos Breuer, Hungarian-born architect (d. 1981)
- 1903 - Manly Wade Wellman, American author (d. 1986)
- 1904 - Robert Montgomery, American actor (d. 1981)
- 1904 - Fats Waller, American pianist (d. 1943)
- 1912 - Monty Stratton, baseball player (d. 1982)
- 1916 - Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (d. 2002)
- 1916 - Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997)
- 1917 - Raymond Burr, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1921 - Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (declined) (d. 1989)
- 1923 - Armand Borel, Swiss mathematician (d. 2003)
- 1923 - Ara Parseghian, American football coach
- 1929 - Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist
- 1930 - Malcolm Fraser, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia
- 1933 - Maurice André, French trumpeter
- 1934 - Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1936 - Günter Blobel, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1939 - Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist and composer
- 1941 - Martin Carthy, English singer and guitarist
- 1944 - Mary Robinson, President of Ireland
- 1945 - Ernst Messerschmid, German physicist and astronaut
- 1948 - Leo Sayer, English pop singer & musician
- 1951 - Al Franken, American comedian and author
- 1952 - Mr. T, American actor
- 1955 - Paul Barber, British field hockey player
- 1956 - Judge Reinhold, American actor
- 1957 - Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress
- 1967 - Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler
- 1967 - Lisa Edelstein, American actress
- 1972 - The Notorious B.I.G., American musician (d. 1997)
- 1972 - Alesha Oreskovich, American model
- 1977 - Quinton Fortune, South African footballer
- 1977 - Ricky Williams, American football player
- 1978 - Briana Banks, German-American actress
- 1980 - Raab Himself, American actor
- 1981 - Belladonna, American actress
- 1981 - Max, German singer
- 1987 - Ashlie Brillault, American actress

Deaths


- 987 - King Louis V of France
- 1254 - Conrad IV of Germany (b. 1228)
- 1481 - King Christian I of Denmark, Norway and Sweden (b. 1426)
- 1512 - Pandolfo Petrucci, ruler of Siena
- 1524 - Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier and statesman
- 1542 - Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer
- 1607 - John Rainolds, English scholar and Bible translator (b. 1549)
- 1639 - Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian, philosopher, and poet (b. 1568)
- 1647 - Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch poet and historian (b. 1581)
- 1650 - James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist (b. 1612)
- 1664 - Elizabeth Poole, Puritan businesswoman
- 1670 - Niccolo Zucchi, Italian astronomer and physicist (b. 1586)
- 1690 - John Eliot, English Puritan missionary (b. 1604)
- 1724 - Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, English statesman (b. 1661)
- 1742 - Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (b. 1664)
- 1771 - Christopher Smart, English poet (b. 1722)
- 1786 - Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (b. 1742)
- 1790 - Thomas Warton, English poet (b. 1728)
- 1844 - Giuseppe Baini, Italian composer (b. 1775)
- 1894 - Emile Henry, French anarchist (b. 1872)
- 1894 - August Kundt, German physicist (b. 1839)
- 1895 - Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
- 1897 - Arturo Prat, Chilean naval officer (b. 1898)
- 1911 - Williamina Fleming, Scottish-born astronomer (b. 1857)
- 1929 - Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)
- 1935 - Jane Addams, American social worker, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1860)
- 1952 - John Garfield, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1964 - James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
- 1965 - Geoffrey de Havilland, British aircraft designer (b. 1882)
- 1970 - E. L. Grant Watson, Australian author and biologist (b. 1885)
- 1988 - Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (b. 1900)
- 1991 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (b. 1944)
- 1996 - Lash LaRue, American actor (b. 1917)
- 1999 - Karnail Pitts, also known as Bugz, rapper for D12 (b. 1979)
- 2000 - Barbara Cartland, English author (b. 1901)
- 2000 - Sir John Gielgud, British actor (b. 1904)
- 2002 - Niki de Saint Phalle, French artist (b. 1930)
- 2003 - Frank D. White, Governor of Arkansas (b. 1933)

Holidays and observances


- Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
  - Thibaut
  - Gisela
  - Godric of Finchale
  - Hospitus
  - Maurelius
- Namibia - Casinga Day
- Navy Day in Chile
- Armed Forces Day in the United States (2005), third Saturday in May
- Astrology: First day of sun sign Gemini in New World
- Astrology: Last day of sun sign Taurus in Old World

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/21 BBC: On This Day] ---- May 20 - May 22 - April 21 - June 21 – listing of all days ko:5월 21일 ms:21 Mei ja:5月21日 simple:May 21 th:21 พฤษภาคม

427 BC

Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC - 420s BC - 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC Years: 432 BC 431 BC 430 BC 429 BC 428 BC - 427 BC - 426 BC 425 BC 424 BC 423 BC 422 BC ----

Events


- Agis II succeeds his father Archidamus II as king of Sparta

Births


- Plato, Greek philosopher

Deaths


- Archidamus II, king of Sparta Category:420s BC

347 BC

Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC - 340s BC - 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 352 BC 351 BC 350 BC 349 BC 348 BC 347 BC 346 BC 345 BC 344 BC 343 BC 342 BC ----

Events

Births


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Deaths


- Plato, Greek philosopher Category:340s BC

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times. It refers not only to the geographical peninsula of modern Greece, but also to areas of Hellenic culture that were settled in ancient times by Greeks: Cyprus, the Aegean coast of Turkey (then known as Ionia), Sicily and southern Italy (known as Magna Graecia), and the scattered Greek settlements on the coasts of what are now Albania, Bulgaria, Egypt, Libya, southern France, southern Spain, Catalonia, Georgia, Romania, and Ukraine. There are no fixed or universally agreed upon dates for the beginning or the end of the Ancient Greek period. In common usage it refers to all Greek history before the Roman Empire, but historians use the term more precisely. Some writers include the periods of the Greek-speaking Mycenaean civilization that collapsed about 1100 BC, though most would argue that the influential Minoan was so different from later Greek cultures that it should be classed separately. In the modern Greek school-books, "ancient times" is a period of about 1000 years (from the catastrophe of Mycenae until the conquest of the country by the Romans) that is divided in four periods, based on styles of art as much as culture and politics. The historical line starts with Greek Dark Ages (1100–800 BC). In this period artists use geometrical schemes such as squares, circles, lines to decorate amphoras and other pottery. The archaic period (800–500 BC) represents those years when the artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, hieratic poses with the dreamlike "archaic smile". In the classical years (500–323 BC) artists perfected the style that since has been taken as exemplary: "classical", such as the (Parthenon). In the Hellenistic years that followed the conquests of Alexander (323–146 BC), also known as Alexandrian, aspects of Hellenic civilization expanded to Egypt and Bactria. Traditionally, the Ancient Greek period was taken to begin with the date of the first Olympic Games in 776 BC, but many historians now extend the term back to about 1000 BC. The traditional date for the end of the Ancient Greek period is the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC (The following period is classed Hellenistic) or the integration of Greece into the Roman Republic in 146 BC. These dates are historians' conventions and some writers treat the Ancient Greek civilization as a continuum running until the advent of Christianity in the third century AD. Ancient Greece is considered by most historians to be the foundational culture of Western Civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence in the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of Europe. Ancient Greek civilization has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, art and architecture of the modern world, particularly during the Renaissance in Western Europe and again during various neo-Classical revivals in 18th and 19th century Europe and The Americas.

Origins

The Americas The Greeks are believed to have migrated southward into the Greek peninsula in several waves beginning in the late 3rd millennium BC, the last being the Dorian invasion. The period from 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is described in History of Mycenaean Greece known for the reign of King Agamemnon and the wars against Troy as narrated in the epics of Homer. The period from 1100 BC to the 8th century BC is a "dark age" from which no primary texts survive, and only scant archaeological evidence remains. Secondary and tertiary texts such as Herodotus' Histories, Pausanias' Description of Greece, Diodorus' Bibliotheca and Jerome's Chronicon, contain brief chronologies and king lists for this period. The history of Ancient Greece is often taken to end with the reign of Alexander the Great, who died in 323 BC. Subsequent events are described in Hellenistic Greece. Any history of Ancient Greece requires a cautionary note on sources. Those Greek historians and political writers whose works have survived, notably Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle, were mostly either Athenian or pro-Athenian. That is why we know far more about the history and politics of Athens than of any other city, and why we know almost nothing about some cities' histories. These writers, furthermore, concentrate almost wholly on political, military and diplomatic history, and ignore economic and social history. All histories of Ancient Greece have to contend with these limits in their sources.

The rise of Hellas

In the 8th century BC Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization. Literacy had been lost and the Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet to Greek and from about 800 BC written records begin to appear. Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pattern dictated by Greek geography, where every island, valley and plain is cut off from its neighbors by the sea or mountain ranges. 800 BC. It was the greatest architectural statement of 5th century BC Greece]] As Greece recovered economically, its population grew beyond the capacity of its limited arable land, and from about 750 BC the Greeks began 250 years of expansion, settling colonies in all directions. To the east, the Aegean coast of Asia Minor was colonized first, followed by Cyprus and the coasts of Thrace, the Sea of Marmara and south coast of the Black Sea. Eventually Greek colonization reached as far north-east as present day Ukraine. To the west the coasts of Albania, Sicily and southern Italy were settled, followed by the south coast of France, Corsica, and even northeastern Spain. Greek colonies were also founded in Egypt and Libya. Modern Syracuse, Naples, Marseille and Istanbul had their beginnings as the Greek colonies Syracusa, Neapolis, Massilia and Byzantium. By the 6th century BC Hellas had become a cultural and linguistic area much larger than the geographical area of Greece. Greek colonies were not politically controlled by their founding cities, although they often retained religious and commercial links with them. The Greeks both at home and abroad organised themselves into independent communities, and the city (polis) became the basic unit of Greek government. First Crete, then in short order the other Greek city-states, adopted the formal practice of pederasty. From its ritual roots in Indo-European prehistory, the practice was elevated to prominence, influencing pedagogy, warfare and social life, and becoming a central feature of Hellenic culture for the next thousand years.

Social and political conflict

The Greek cities were originally monarchies, although many of them were very small and the term "King" (basileus) for their rulers is misleadingly grand. In a country always short of farmland, power rested with a small class of landowners, who formed a warrior aristocracy fighting frequent petty inter-city wars over land and rapidly ousting the monarchy. About this time the rise of a mercantile class (shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC) introduced class conflict into the larger cities. From 650 BC onwards, the aristocracies had to fight not to be overthrown and replaced by populist leaders called tyrants (tyrranoi), a word which did not necessarily have the modern meaning of oppressive dictators. By the 6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs: Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes. Each of them had brought the surrounding rural areas and smaller towns under their control, and Athens and Corinth had become major maritime and mercantile powers as well. Athens and Sparta developed a rivalry that dominated Greek politics for generations. In Sparta, the landed aristocracy retained their power, and the constitution of Lycurgus (about 650 BC) entrenched their power and gave Sparta a permanent militarist regime under a dual monarchy. Sparta dominated the other cities of the Peloponnese, with the sole exceptions of Argus and Achaia. In Athens, by contrast, the monarchy was abolished in 683 BC, and reforms of Solon established a moderate system of aristocratic government. The aristocrats were followed by the tyranny of Pisistratus and his sons, who made the city a great naval and commercial power. When the Pisistratids were overthrown, Cleisthenes established the world's first democracy (500 BC), with power being held by an assembly of all the male citizens. But it must be remembered that only a minority of the male inhabitants were citizens, excluding slaves, freedmen and non-Athenians.

The Persian Wars

In Ionia (the modern Aegean coast of Turkey) the Greek cities, which included great centres such as Miletus and Halicarnassus, were unable to maintain their independence and came under the rule of the Persian Empire in the mid 6th century BC. In 499 BC the Greeks rose in the Ionian Revolt, and Athens and some other Greek cities went to their aid. In 490 BC the Persian Great King, Darius I, having suppressed the Ionian cities, sent a fleet to punish the Greeks. The Persians landed in Attica, but were defeated at the Battle of Marathon by a Greek army led by the Athenian general Miltiades. The burial mound of the Athenian dead can still be seen at Marathon. Ten years later Darius's successor, Xerxes I, sent a much more powerful force by land. After being delayed by the Spartan King Leonidas I at Thermopylae, Xerxes advanced into Attica, where he captured and burned Athens. But the Athenians had evacuated the city by sea, and under Themistocles they defeated the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis. A year later, the Greeks, under the Spartan Pausanius, defeated the Persian army at Plataea. The Athenian fleet then turned to chasing the Persians out of the Aegean Sea, and in 478 BC they captured Byzantium. In the course of doing so Athens enrolled all the island states and some mainland allies into an alliance, called the Delian League because its treasury was kept on the sacred island of Delos. The Spartans, although they had taken part in the war, withdrew into isolation after it, allowing Athens to establish unchallenged naval and commercial power.

The dominance of Athens

Delos The Persian Wars ushered in a century of Athenian dominance of Greek affairs. Athens was the unchallenged master of the sea, and also the leading commercial power, although Corinth remained a serious rival. The leading statesman of this time was Pericles, who used the tribute paid by the members of the Delian League to build the Parthenon and other great monuments of classical Athens. By the mid 5th century the League had become an Athenian Empire, symbolised by the transfer of the League's treasury from Delos to the Parthenon in 454 BC. The wealth of Athens attracted talented people from all over Greece, and also created a wealthy leisured class who became patrons of the arts. The Athenian state also sponsored learning and the arts, particularly architecture. Athens became the centre of Greek literature, philosophy (see Greek philosophy) and the arts (see Greek theatre). Some of the greatest names of Western cultural and intellectual history lived in Athens during this period: the dramatists Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, and Sophocles, the philosophers Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, the historians Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, the poet Simonides and the sculptor Pheidias. The city became, in Pericles's words, "the school of Hellas." The other Greek states at first accepted Athenian leadership in the continuing war against the Persians, but after the fall of the conservative politician Cimon in 461 BC, Athens became an increasingly open imperialist power. After the Greek victory at the Battle of the Eurymedon in 466 BC, the Persians were no longer a threat, and some states, such as Naxos, tried to secede from the League, but were forced to submit. The new Athenian leaders, Pericles and Ephialtes, let relations between Athens and Sparta deteriorate, and in 458 BC war broke out. After some years of inconclusive war a 30-year peace was signed between the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League (Sparta and her allies). This coincided with the last battle between the Greeks and the Persians, a sea battle off Salamis in Cyprus, followed by the Peace of Callias (450 BC) between the Greeks and Persians.

The Peloponnesian War

450 BC In 431 BC war broke out again between Athens and Sparta and its allies. The proximate cause was a dispute between Corinth and one of its colonies, Corcyra (modern-day Corfu), in which Athens intervened. The obviate cause was the growing resentment of Sparta and its allies at the dominance of Athens over Greek affairs. The war lasted 27 years, partly because Athens (a naval power) and Sparta (a land-based military power) found it difficult to come to grips with each other. Sparta's initial strategy was to invade Attica, but the Athenians were able to retreat behind their walls. An outbreak of plague in the city during the siege caused heavy losses, including Pericles. At the same time the Athenian fleet landed troops in the Peloponnese, winning battles at Naupactus (429 BC) and Pylos (425 BC). But these tactics could bring neither side a decisive victory. After several years of inconclusive campaigning, the moderate Athenian leader Nicias concluded the Peace of Nicias (421 BC). In 418 BC, however, hostility between Sparta and the Athenian ally Argos led to a resumption of fighting. At Mantinea Sparta defeated the combined armies of Athens and her allies. The resumption of fighting brought the war party, led by Alcibiades, back to power in Athens. In 415 BC Alcibiades persuaded the Athenian Assembly to launch a major expedition against Syracuse, a Peloponnesian ally in Sicily. Though Nicias was a skeptic about the Sicilian Expedition he was appointed along Alcibiades to lead the expedition. Due to accusations against him, Alcibiades fled to Sparta where he persuaded Sparta to send aid to Syracuse. As a result, the expedition was a complete disaster and the whole expeditionary force was lost. Nicias was executed by his captors. Sparta had now built a fleet to challenge Athenian naval supremacy, and had found a brilliant military leader in Lysander, who seized the strategic initiative by occupying the Hellespont, the source of Athens' grain imports. Threatened with starvation, Athens sent its last remaining fleet to confront Lysander, who decisively defeated them at Aegospotami (405 BC). The loss of her fleet threatened Athens with bankruptcy. In 404 BC Athens sued for peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern settlement: Athens lost her city walls, her fleet, and all of her overseas possessions. The anti-democratic party took power in Athens with Spartan support.

Spartan and Theban dominance

The end of the Peloponnesian War left Sparta the master of Greece, but the narrow outlook of the Spartan warrior elite did not suit them to this role. Within a few years the democratic party regained power in Athens and other cities. In 395 BC the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval supremacy. Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth, the latter two formerly Spartan allies, challenged Spartan dominance in the Corinthian War, which ended inconclusively in 387 BC. That same year Sparta shocked Greek opinion by concluding the Treaty of Antalcidas with Persia by which they surrendered the Greek cities of Ionia and Cyprus, thus reversing a hundred years of Greek victories against Persia. Sparta then tried to further weaken the power of Thebes, which led to a war in which Thebes allied herself with the old enemy, Athens. The Theban generals Epaminondas and Pelopidas won a decisive victory at Leuctra (371 BC). The result of this battle was the end of Spartan supremacy and the establishment of Theban dominance, but Athens also recovered much of her former power. The supremacy of Thebes was short-lived. With the death of Epaminondas at Mantinea (362 BC) the city lost its greatest leader, and his successors blundered into an unsuccessful ten-year war with Phocis. In 346 BC the Thebans appealed to Philip II of Macedon to help them against the Phocians, thus drawing Macedon into Greek affairs for the first time.

The rise of Macedon

The Kingdom of Macedon was formed in the 7th century BC out of northern Greek tribes. They played little part in Greek politics before the beginning of the 4th century, but Philip was an ambitious man who had been educated in Thebes and wanted to play a larger role. In particular, he wanted to be accepted as the new leader of Greece in recovering the freedom of the Greek cities of Asia from Persian rule. By seizing the Greek cities of Amphipolis, Methone and Potidaea, he gained control of the gold and silver mines of Macedonia. This gave him the resources to realize his ambitions. Philip established Macedonian dominance over Thessaly (352 BC) and Thrace, and by 348 BC he controlled everything north of Thermopylae. He used his great wealth to bribe Greek politicians and create a "Macedonian party" in every Greek city. His intervention in the war between Thebes and Phocis brought him recognition as a Greek leader, and gave him his opportunity to become a power in Greek affairs. But despite his sincere admiration for Athens, the Athenian leader Demosthenes, in a series of famous speeches (philippics) roused the Greek cities to resist his advance. In 339 BC Thebes, Athens, Sparta and other Greek states formed an alliance to resist Philip and expel him from the Greek cities he had occupied in the north. But Philip struck first, advancing into Greece and defeating the Greek cities at Chaeronea in 338 BC. This traditionally marks the end of the era of the Greek city-state as an independent political unit, although in fact Athens and other cities survived as independent states until Roman times. Philip tried to win over Athens by flattery and gifts, but did not really succeed. He organised the cities into the League of Corinth, and announced that he would lead an invasion of Persia to liberate the Greek cities and avenge the Persian invasions of the previous century. But before he could do so he was assassinated (336 BC).

The conquests of Alexander

Philip was succeeded by his 20-year-old son Alexander, who immediately set out to carry out his father's plans. He travelled to Corinth where the assembled Greek cities recognised him as leader of the Greeks, then set off north to assemble his forces. The army with which he invaded the Persian Empire was basically Macedonian, but many idealists from the Greek cities also enlisted. But while Alexander was campaigning in Thrace, he heard that the Greek cities had rebelled. He swept south again, captured Thebes, and razed the city to the ground as a warning to the Greek cities that his power could no longer be resisted. In 334 BC Alexander crossed into Asia, and defeated the Persians at the river Granicus. This gave him control of the Ionian coast, and he made a triumphal procession through the liberated Greek cities. After settling affairs in Anatolia, he advanced south through Cilicia into Syria, where he defeated Darius III at Issus (333 BC). He then advanced through Phoenicia to Egypt, which he captured with little resistance, the Egyptians welcoming him as a liberator from Persian oppression. Darius was now ready to make peace and Alexander could have returned home in triumph, but he was determined to conquer Persia and make himself the ruler of the world. He advanced north-east through Syria and Mesopotamia, and defeated Darius again at Gaugamela (331 BC). Darius fled and was killed by his own followers, and Alexander found himself the master of the Persian Empire, occupying Susa and Persepolis without resistance. Persepolis (as an eagle) being offered wine by Ganymede. A child Eros is in the foreground.]] Meanwhile the Greek cities were making renewed efforts to escape from Macedonian control. At Megalopolis in 331 BC, Alexander's regent Antipater defeated the Spartans, who had refused to join the Corinthian League or recognise Macedonian supremacy. Alexander pressed on, advancing through what are now Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indus river valley, and by 326 BC he had reached Punjab. He might well have advanced down the Ganges to Bengal had not his army, convinced they were at the end of the world, refused to go any further. Alexander reluctantly turned back, and died of a fever in Babylon in 323 BC. Alexander's empire broke up soon after his death, but his conquests permanently changed the Greek world. Thousands of Greeks travelled with him or after him to settle in the new Greek cities he had founded as he advanced, the most important being Alexandria in Egypt. Greek-speaking kingdoms in Egypt, Syria, Iran and Bactria were established. The Hellenistic age had begun.

See also


- Ancient Olympic Games
- Architecture of Ancient Greece
- Art in Ancient Greece
- Eleusinian Mysteries
- Fiction set in Ancient Greece
- Greek literature
- Greek mathematics
- Greek mythology
- Greek philosophy
- Greek theatre
- History of Athens
- History of the Greek language
- Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece
- List of ancient Greeks
- List of ancient Greek cities
- Timeline of Ancient Greece ko:고대 그리스 ja:古代ギリシア th:กรีซโบราณ

Philosopher

A philosopher is a person devoted to studying and producing results in philosophy. The word, "philosopher," literally means "lover of wisdom." Greek: "φίλος + σοφία"

Popular Western philosophers in (approximate) historical order


Not listed above: (some of) The Presocratics -- Epicurus place after Aristotle --Hellenistic Philosophers -- Cicero -- Avicenna -- Sir Thomas Browne -- Francis Bacon -- Thomas Reid -- Dugald Stewart -- James Mill -- Rudolf Steiner -- Albert Schweitzer -- G. E. Moore -- Albert Camus -- Georg Henrik von Wright -- Mortimer Adler -- Nelson Goodman -- Imre Lakatos -- Paul Feyerabend -- Mario Bunge -- Douglas Hofstadter -- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin--Ayn Rand

Eastern philosophers in approximate historical order:

Gautama Buddha -- Confucius -- Mozi -- Lao Zi -- Rhazes -- Mencius -- Zhuang Zi -- Xun Zi --Han Feizi -- Nagarjuna -- Bodhidharma -- Avicenna -- Shankara -- Dogen -- Zhu Xi -- Feng Youlan -- Iqbal -- Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Philosophers: listed by philosophical school

See Philosophical Movements. Krishnamoorti

Nicknames of Medieval Philosophers

Several medieval philosophers have been given Latin nicknames -- some by their contemporaries, others by historians. For example:
- Francis Mayron - Doctor acutus, the acute doctor, or Doctor illuminatus
- St. Thomas Aquinas - Doctor Angelicus, the angelic doctor, or Doctor Communis
- William of Ockham - Doctor Invincibilis
- Alexander of Hales - Doctor Irrefragibilis
- Roger Bacon - Doctor Mirabilis, the wonderful doctor
- John Bassol - Doctor Ordinatissimus, the most methodical doctor
- Nissim Cahn - Doctor Gaon, the innovative doctor
- St. Bonaventure - Doctor Seraphicus
- Henry Goethals (Hendricus Bonicollius) - Doctor Solemnis, the solemn doctor
- Richard Middleton - the solid doctor, or the profound doctor
- Duns Scotus - Doctor Subtilis, the discriminating doctor, or Doctor Marianus
- Albertus Magnus - Doctor Universalis
- Durandus de Sancto Portiano - the most resolute doctor
- Thomas Bradwardine - the profound doctor
- Jean Ruysbroeck (Joannes Ruysbrokius) - the divine doctor or ecstatic doctor See Also the articles at: Philosophy, Eastern philosophy, Epistemology, Ethics, Metaphysics, Aesthetics, Deconstruction, Ontology, Logic, Reason, Mathematicians, Feminism, Scientists, List of philosophers, and a fuller listing at :Category:Philosophers. ---- The Philosopher is also the nickname of Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 22. Category:Philosophy Category:Humanities occupations ko:철학자 ja:思想家 th:นักปรัชญา



Academy

An academy is an institution for the study of higher learning. The name Academy rose from Plato's Athenian school of philosophy, founded in approximately 385 BC. The term is also used for various other institutions in modern times (see below).

The original Academy

Before the Akademeia was a school, however, even before Cimon enclosed its precincts with a wall (Plutarch Life of Cimon xiii:7), it contained a sacred grove of olive trees outside the city walls of ancient Athens (Thucydides ii:34). The archaic name for the site was Hekademeia, which by classical times evolved into Akademeia and was explained, at least as early as the beginning of the 6th century BC, by linking it to an eponymous Athenian hero, a legendary "Akademos". The site of the Academy was sacred to Athena and other immortals; it had sheltered a religious cult since the Bronze Age, a cult that was perhaps associated with the hero-gods the Dioskouroi (Castor and Polydeukes), for the hero Akademos associated with the site was credited with revealing to the Divine Twins where Theseus had hidden Helen. Out of respect for its association with the Dioskouri, the Spartans would not ravage these original "groves of Academe" when they invaded Attica (Plutarch, Life of Theseus xxxii), a piety not shared by the Roman Sulla, who axed the sacred olive trees in 86 BC to build siege engines. Among the religious observations that took place at the Akademeia was a torchlit night race from altars within the city to the Promemeikos altar in the Akademeia. Funeral games also took place in the area as well as a Dionysiac procession from Athens to the Hekademeia and then back to the polis (Paus. i 29.2, 30.2; Plut. Vit. Sol. i 7). The road to Akademeia was lined with the gravestones of Athenians. The Platonic Academy is usually contrasted with Aristotle's own creation, the Peripatetics. Famous philosophers entrusted with running the Academy include Arcesilaus, Speusippus, Xenocrates and Proclus.

The revived neoplatonic Academy of Late Antiquity

After a lapse during the early Roman occupation, the Academy was refounded (Cameron 1965) as a new institution of some outstanding Platonists of late antiquity who called themselves "successors" (diadochoi, but of Plato) and presented themselves as an uninterrupted tradition reaching back to Plato. There cannot really have been any geographical, institutional, economic or personal continuity with the original Academy in the new organizational entity (Bechtle). The last "Greek" philosophers of the revived Academy in the 6th century were drawn from variouis parts of the Hellenistic cultural world and suggest the broad syncretism of the common culture (see koine): Five of the seven Academy philosophers mentioned by Agathias were Syriac in their cultural origin: Hermias and Diogenes (both from Phoenicia), Isidorus of Gaza, Damascius of Syria, Iamblichus of Coele-Syria and perhaps even Simplicius of Cilicia himself (Thiele). The emperor Justinian closed the school in AD 529, a date that is often cited for the end of Antiquity. According to the sole witness, the historian Agathias, its remaining members looked for protection under the rule of Sassanid king Khosrau I in his capital at Ctesiphon, carrying with them precious scrolls of literature and philosophy, and to a lesser degree of science. After a peace treaty between the Persian and the Byzantine empire in 532 guaranteed their personal security (an early document in the history of freedom of religion), some members found sanctuary in the pagan stronghold of Harran, near Edessa. One of the last leading figures of this group was Simplicius, a pupil of Damascius, the last head of the Athenian school. The students of the Academy-in-exile, an authentic and important Neoplatonic school surviving at least until the 10th century, contributed to the Islamic preservation of Greek science and medicine, when Islamic forces took the area in the 7th century (Thiele). One of the earliest academies established in the east was the 7th century Academy of Gundishapur in Sassanid Persia. Sassanid Persia Raphael painted a famous fresco depicting "The School of Athens" in the 16th century. The site of the Academy was rediscovered in the 20th century; considerable excavation has been accomplished. The Church of St. Triton on Kolokynthou Street, Athens, occupies the southern corner of the Academy, confirmed in 1966 by the discovery of a boundary stone dated to 500 BC.

Modern use of the term academy

Because of the tradition of intellectual brilliance associated with this institution, many groups have chosen to use the word "Academy" in their name. During the Florentine Renaissance, Cosimo de' Medici took a personal interest in the new Platonic Academy that he determined to re-establish in 1439, centered on the marvellous promise shown by Marsilio Ficino, scarcely more than a lad. Cosimo had been inspired by the arrival at the otherwise ineffective Council of Florence of Gemistos Plethon, who seemed like a Plato reborn to the Florentine intellectuals. In 1462 Cosimo gave Ficino a villa at Careggi for the Academy's use, situated where Cosimo could descry it from his own villa. The Renaissance drew potent intellectual and spiritual strength from the academy at Careggi. During the course of the following century many Italian cities established an Academy, of which the oldest survivor is the Accademia dei Lincei of Rome, which became a national academy for a reunited Italy. Accademia dei Lincei, 1885, in a Greek Ionic academically correct even to the polychrome sculpture]] Other national academies include the Académie Francaise; the Royal Academy of the United Kingdom; the International Academy of Science, the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY; the United States Naval Academy. In emulation of the military academies, police in the United States are trained in police academies. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the annual Academy awards. A fundamental feature of academic discipline in those academies that were training-schools for artists was regular practice in making accurate drawings from antiquities, or from casts of antiquities, on the one hand, and on the other, in deriving inspiration from the other fount, the human form. Students assembled in sessions drawing the draped and undraped human form, and such drawings, which survive in the tens of thousands from the 17th through the 19th century, are termed académies. In the early 19th century "academy" took the connotations that "gymnasium" was acquiring in German-speaking lands, of school that was less advanced than a college (for which it might prepare students) but considerably more than elementary. An early example are the two academies founded at Andover and Phillips Exeter Academy. Amherst Academy expanded with time to form Amherst College. Mozart organized public subscription performances of his music in Vienna in the