PLATO'S ACADEMY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 145, 22 June 1938, Page 6

PLATO'S ACADEMY

A REVIVAL IN ATHENS

ON THE ORIGINAL SITE

An Academy to revive the Platonic ido.-il and to unite, irrespective of race and creed, those who are studying to solve the. problems of humanity, is to be erected on the ruins of the school where mdre than 2300 years ago Plato expounded his philosophy, writes the Athens correspondent of the "Christian Science Monitor."

Parts of this original academy have recently been excavated through the interest of Mr. Pan Aristophron, architect and business man of this city.

The plan for" reviving the Platonic ideal came to Mr. Aristophron through his contact with a student of the classics. This student told Mr. Aristophron he was disturbed by the dangerous turn which he considered contemporary politics were taking, and which he held contributed so much to the misery and discord of the human race. ' .

Multiplicity of religious sects, he said, and conflicts arising from diversity of doctrine, have added to the difficulties of human society, preventing the Gospel from bringing peace to the nations and insipring man with high ideals.- This decline,' he added, proceeded from the gulf which had opened between the Church and natural science, but not between religion and | natural science, which, in his opinion, I formed the two focal points of all creative power and happiness.

"Alas for mankind if it travels on the powerful wings of natural science alone," the'student added."

SOLUTION IN PLATO. The philosopher advised Mr. Aristophron to study Plato for the solution of these vital problems. But he stressed that all beautiful ideas, goodness, light, love, brotherhood, and so forth, would become incomprehensible without linking them up with the teaching of Christianity. .

Mr. Aristophron was impressed and applied himself to the study of Plato as a field of hidden treasure. He believed that from the ruins cf Plato's Academy would germinate a new world of co-operation. In 1929 he was officially authorised to excavate the site of the academy. In view of his studies of classical literature he was able to locate the site of the famous institution, which, according to ancient authors, was situated at the northwest of Athens.

The academy is thought to have been

originally a park surrounded by an enclosure built in 525 8.C., and later parcelled with splendid walks. In' the garden was a gymnasium for the Athenian youth.

The academy became' famous after Plato founded his philosophical school. After 900 years this was first destroyed by Sylla and then Wholly suppressed by the Emperor Justlpian in 529 A.D. -

In three years Mr. Aristophron succeeded in bringing to light *a "building with colonnades which is identified with the gymnasium of ■ the academy where Plato first established his university. The columns of the gymnasium are thought to have been of wood because the quadrilateral bases are of Poros stone which could not have supported heavy marble columns. GOVERNMENT GRANT. Mr. Aristophron discovered also the Peribolos or enclosure of the garden measuring 1650 feet as well as the ancient street from Athens to the academy. The Greek Government, recognising the great importance of these discoveries for Greece and the whole world, has agreed to finance the enterprise by an annua] grant of 3,000,000 drach* mas (£7500). ; ■■' The whole area covered by" the grounds of the academy;*" and its immediate surroundings ' are to be cleared of their mbdern buildings. In speaking of,his aims, Mr. Aristophron explained that in ancient times there existed in Greece "koinons'' or unions of individuals or of groups, at which representatives of various Greek communes, came together to discuss problems of vital interest. The new Koinon, he .said, w,hich it is proposed to build .on the ruins of Plato's Academy, is,-however, 4o be quite different in its aim and scope; it is to comprise representative's, from all parts' of the civilised world; national academies, universities, scientific bodies, and organisations, in fact all who are willing to devote themselves to the study of humanity's problems will be welcomed as members. -The issues will be wholly free from polio tics.