A legendary hero in Greek mythology, Akademos (originally Hekademos) or, less correctly, Academus was linked to the archaic name for the site of Plato's Academy, the Hekademeia, outside the walls of Athens. By classical times the name of the place had evolved into the Akademeia and was explained by linking it to an eponymous Athenian hero, a legendary "Akademos," at least as early as the beginning of the 6th century BC. The site was sacred to Athena and other immortals; it had sheltered religious cult since the Bronze Age, which 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 of Troy.

Akademeia was the source of the word "academy".