Acharnae or Acharnai (/əˈkɑːr.niː/; Ancient Greek: Ἀχαρναί) was a deme of ancient Athens. It was part of the phyle Oineis.
Acharnae, according to Thucydides, was the largest deme in Attica. In the fourth century BCE, 22 of the 500 members of the Athenian council came from Acharnae, more than from any other deme.
Mount Parnitha (Greek: Πάρνηθα, pronounced [ˈparniθa], Katharevousa and Ancient Greek: Πάρνης Parnis/Parnes; sometimes Parnetha) is a lightly forested mountain range north of Athens, the highest on the peninsula of Attica, with an elevation of 1,413 m, and a summit known as Karavola (Καραβόλα). Much of the mountain is designated a national park, and is a protected habitat for wildfowl, first created in 1961. The summit is located 18 km north of Acharnes and about 30 km north of the Athens city center. The mountain covers approximately 250 km² of land. Other peaks include Mavrovouni (Μαυροβούνι), Ornio (1,350 m), Area (1,160 m), Avgo or Avgho (1,150 m), and Xerovouni (Ξεροβούνι, meaning "dry mountain": 1,120 m). It also has two shelters Mpafi and Flampouri. The name of the mountain dates back to ancient times, when it was under the ancient demes of Acharnae and Decelea.
In Ancient Greece, a deme or demos (Ancient Greek: δῆμος, plural: demoi, δῆμοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside existed in the 6th century BC and earlier, but did not acquire particular significance until the reforms of Cleisthenes 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, or family group. At this same time, demes were established in the main city of Athens itself, where they had not previously existed; in all, at the end of Cleisthenes' reforms, Athens was divided into 139 demes. Three other demes were created subsequently: Berenikidai (224/223 BC), Apollonieis (201/200 BC), and Antinoeis (AD 126/127). The establishment of demes as the fundamental units of the state weakened the gene, or aristocratic family groups, that had dominated the phratries.
A deme functioned to some degree as a polis in miniature, and indeed some demes, such as Eleusis and Acharnae, 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.
Apollodorus (Ancient Greek: Ἀπολλόδωρος, romanized: Apollodōros; 394 – after 343 BCE) of Acharnae in Attica was an Athenian politician known from several ancient forensic speeches which were preserved as part of the Demosthenic corpus. He was the son of Pasion, a wealthy banker who had been granted Athenian citizenship in thanks for the gifts he had made to the city of Athens.