The New Academy
Wednesday, January 12th, 2005The story of Akedemos is a rather confused one. I don’t have my Bullfinch at hand, but what I can glean from other resources, the story goes something like this.
About 32 centuries ago, Theseus and his friend, Peirithous, in youthful high spirits decided one day that it would be very nice to take a couple of Zeus’s daughters as wives. To advance this cause, they kidnapped a very young Helen (the same Helen who would be kidnapped later by Paris — igniting the Trojan War) from her home in Sparta. Helen’s brothers, Castor and Pollux, took their army to Attica to try to retrieve their younger sister, but were unable to locate her. An Athenian named Akademos learned where the girl was being kept and told the brothers where to find her. His information spared the countryside from the ravages of the invading army. When Akademos died, he was buried with honor on the grounds of his home a few kilometers from Athens.
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