academy [LME] An academy today is a place of learning or culture. It is fitting, then, that the word originated with one of the most influential scholars who ever lived, the Greek philosopher Plato. During the 4th century bc he taught in a garden in Athens called the Akadēmeia, which was named after an ancient hero called Akadēmos. It gave its name to the school Plato founded, the Academy. Similarly, Aristotle taught in the garden known as the Lyceum, named after a nearby temple of Apollo Lyceus (‘the wolf-god’).