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In Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
, a deme (d?µ??) was a subdivision of Attica
Attica

Attica is a Peripheries of Greece in Greece, containing Athens, the capital of Greece. Attica is subdivided into the prefectures of Greece of Athens Prefecture, Piraeus Prefecture, East Attica and West Attica....
, the region of Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 surrounding Athens
Classical Athens

The city of Athens during classical antiquity was a notable polis of Attica, Ancient Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League....
. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, but did not acquire particular significance until the reforms of Cleisthenes
Cleisthenes

Cleisthenes was a noble Athens of the Alcmaeonidae family. He is credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a Athenian democracy footing in 508 BC or 507 BC....
 in 508 BC.






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Agma Pinakia
In Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
, a deme (d?µ??) was a subdivision of Attica
Attica

Attica is a Peripheries of Greece in Greece, containing Athens, the capital of Greece. Attica is subdivided into the prefectures of Greece of Athens Prefecture, Piraeus Prefecture, East Attica and West Attica....
, the region of Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 surrounding Athens
Classical Athens

The city of Athens during classical antiquity was a notable polis of Attica, Ancient Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League....
. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, but did not acquire particular significance until the reforms of Cleisthenes
Cleisthenes

Cleisthenes was a noble Athens of the Alcmaeonidae family. He is credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a Athenian democracy footing in 508 BC or 507 BC....
 in 508 BC. In those reforms, enrollment in the citizen-lists of a deme became the requirement for citizenship; prior to that time, citizenship had been based on membership in a phratry
Phratry

A phratry was an anthropological term for a kinship division consisting of two or more distinct clans which are considered a single unit, but which retain separate identities within the phratry....
, or family group. At this same time, demes were established in the city of Athens itself, where they had not previously existed; in all, at the end of Cleisthenes' reforms, Attica was divided into 139 demes. The establishment of demes as the fundamental units of the state weakened the gene
Genos

Genos was the ancient Greece term for small kinship and descent groups which identified themselves as a unit, referred to by a single name....
, or aristocratic family groups, that had dominated the phratries.

A deme functioned to some degree as a polis
Polis

A polis -- plural: poleis --is a city, a city-state and also citizenship and body of citizens. When used to describe Classical Athens and its contemporaries, polis is often translated as "city-state."...
 in miniature, and indeed some demes, such as Eleusis and Acharnae
Acharnae

Acharnae was the largest deme of ancient Attica; it was located in the northwest part of the Attic plain, south of Mt. Parnes in the general vicinity of the modern suburbs of Acharnes and Ano Liosia, about 10 km due north of Athens....
, were in fact significant towns. Each deme had a demarchos who supervised its affairs; various other civil, religious, and military functionaries existed in various demes. Demes held their own religious festivals and collected and spent revenue.

Demes were combined with other demes from the same area to make trittyes
Trittys

Trittyes were population divisions in ancient Attica, established by the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 BC. The name means "thirtieth," and there were in fact thirty trittyes in Attica....
, larger population groups, which in turn were combined to form the ten tribes, or phyle
Phyle

Phyle is an ancient Greek term for clan or tribe. They were usually ruled by a basileus. Some of them can be classified by their geographic location: the Geleontes, the Argadeis, the Hopletes, and the Agikoreis, in Ionia ; the Hylleans, the Pamphyles, the Dymanes, in the Dorian region....
s of Athens. Each tribe contained one trittys
Trittys

Trittyes were population divisions in ancient Attica, established by the reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 BC. The name means "thirtieth," and there were in fact thirty trittyes in Attica....
 from each of three regions, the city, the coast, and the inland area.

List of Athenian demes according to tribes/phylai


Erechthides

Upper Agryle
Lower Agryle
Anagyrous
Anagyrous

Anagyrous was one of the deme in ancient Athens near modern day Vari. It belonged in the tribe Erechtheis. A sanctuary of the mother of the gods was situated here according to Pausanias ....
Euonymon
Euonymon

Euonymon was one of the deme in ancient Athens near modern day Argyroupolis and Ellinikon. It belonged in the tribe Erechtheis. Euonymon's cemetery was discovered in 2003....
Themakos
Kedoi
Kephisia
Upper Lamptrai
Lower Lamptrai
Pambotadai
Upper Pergase
Lower Pergase
Phegous


Aegides

Upper Ankyle
Lower Ankyle
Araphen
Halai Araphenides
Bate
Gargettos
Diomeia
Hestiaia
Erikeia
Erchia
Erchia

Erchia is a genus of moth in the family Arctiidae.References...
Ikarion
Ionidai
Kollytos
Kolonus
Colonus

}|---- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| Population percentage : || 15% Non-Greeks85% Greeks|---- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| Elevation: -lowest: -centre: -highest:||about 3540 mabout 45 m...
Kydantidai
Myrrhinoutta
Otryne
Plotheia
Teithras
Phegaia
Philaidai


Pandionides

Angele
Konthyle
Kydathenaion
Kytheros
Kytheros

Not to be confused with Kythera islandKytheros or Cytherus may refer to*Kytheros a River god of Elis in West Peloponnesos*Kytheros an ancient Athenian Deme...
Myrrhinous
Oa
Oa

Oa is a fictional planet that lies at the center of the DC Comics DC Universe. Since its inception, Oa has been the planetary citadel of the Guardians of the Universe and the headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps....
Prasiai
Probalinthos
Upper Paiania
Lower Paiania
Steiria


Leontides

Aithalidai
Halimous
Deiradiotai
Hecale
Hecale

In Greek mythology, Hecale was an old woman who offered succor to Theseus on his way to capture the Marathonian Bull.On the way to Marathon, Greece to capture the Bull, Theseus sought shelter from a storm in a shack owned by an ancient lady named Hecale....
Eupyridai
Kettos
Kolonai
Kropidai
Leukonion
Oion Kerameikon
Paionidai
Pelekes
Upper Potamos
Lower Potamos
Potamioi-Deiradiotai
Skambonidai
Sounion
Sounion

Headlands and bays Sounion is a promontory located 69 km SSE of Athens, at the southernmost tip of the Attica peninsula in Greece.Cape Sounion is noted as the site of ruins of the ancient Greek temple of Poseidon, the god of the sea in classical mythology....
Hybadai
Phrearrhioi
Cholleidai


Acamantides

Hagnous
Eiresidai
Eitea
Hermos
Iphistiadai
Thorikos
Kerameis
Kephale
Kikynna
Kyrteidai
Poros
Poros

Poros is a small Greece island-pair in the southern part of the Saronic Gulf, at a distance about 58 km south from Piraeus and separated from the Peloponnese by a 200-metre wide sea channel....
Prospalta
Sphettos
Cholargos
Cholargos

Cholargos Latin/Older form: Cholargus is a suburb of Athens, Greece, located northeast of the city center and about 6 kilometers away from Syntagma square....


Oenides

Acharnai
Boutadai
Epikephisia
Thria
Hippotomadai
Kothokidai
Lakiadai
Lousia
Oe
Oe

Oe can mean* ?, a Typographical ligature of o and e, used in the modern French and medieval Latin alphabets* Oe , a digraph * The open-mid front rounded vowel, represented by the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet...
Perithoidai
Ptelea
Tyrmeidai
Phyle
Phyle

Phyle is an ancient Greek term for clan or tribe. They were usually ruled by a basileus. Some of them can be classified by their geographic location: the Geleontes, the Argadeis, the Hopletes, and the Agikoreis, in Ionia ; the Hylleans, the Pamphyles, the Dymanes, in the Dorian region....


Cecropides

Athmonon
Aixone
Halai
Daidalidai
Epieikidai
Melite
Melite

Melite was one of the naiads, daughter of the river god Aegaeus, and one of the many loves of Zeus and his son Hercules. Given the choice, she chose Hercules over Zeus who went off in search of other pursuits....
Xypete
Pithos
Pithos

Pithos is the ancient Greek language word for a large storage jar of a characteristic shape. Originally used by western classical archaeologists to mean the jars uncovered by excavation in Crete and Greece, it has now been taken into the American English language as a general word for a storage jar from any cultural horizon....
Sypalettos
Trinemeia
Phlya


Hippothoontides

Azenia
Hamaxanteia
Anakaia
Auridai
Acherdous
Dekeleia
Elaious
Eleusis
Eroiadai
Thymaitadai
Keiriadai
Koile
Kopros
Korydallos
Korydallos

Korydallos is a municipality which belongs to Piraeus Prefecture, Greece in the western suburbs of Athens. It is the home of the Korydallos prisons....
Oenoe (of the west)
Oion Dekeleikon
Peiraeus


Ĉantides

Aphidna
Marathon
Marathon

The marathon is a long-distance running with an official distance of 42.195 kilometers that is usually run as a road race. The event is named after the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens....
Oenoe (of the east)
Rhamnous
Rhamnous

The site of Rhamnous , the remote northernmost deme of Attica, lies 39km NE of Athens and 12.4km NNE of Marathon, Greece, Greece overlooking the Euboea....
Trikorynthos
Phaleron


Antiochides

Aigilia
Alopeke
Amphitrope
Anaphlystos
Atene
Besa
Besa

Besa may refer to* Banco Espirito Santo Angola* Besa machine gun- a Czech machine gun design developed by Birmingham Small Arms Company.* Be?a - village in Michalovce District in Slovakia...
Eitea
Eroidai
Ergadeis
Thorai
Kolonai
Krioa
Leukopyra
Pallene
Pallene

Pallene can refer to* Pallene , one of the seven Alkyonides, daughters of the giant Alkyoneus in Greek mythology* Pallene , a small moon of Saturn, discovered in 2004...
Semachidai
Phyrrhinesioi


Later usage

The term deme (demos) survived into the Hellenistic and Roman eras. By the time of the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
, the term was used to refer to one of the four chariot racing
Chariot racing

Chariot racing was one of the most popular Ancient Greece, Roman Empire and Byzantine empire sports. Chariot racing was often dangerous to both driver and horse?they frequently suffered serious injury and even death?but generated strong spectator enthusiasm....
 factions, the Reds, the Blues, the Greens and the Whites.

In modern Greece, the term demos is used to denote the municipalities.

Footnotes