ACHARNAE
ACHARNAE (
Ἀχαρναί: Eth.
Ἀχαρνεύς, Eth.
Acharnanus,
Nep. Them.. 1.; Adj. Ἀχαρνικός), the principal demus of Attica, belonging to the tribe Oeneis, was situated 60 stadia N. of Athens, and consequently not far from the foot of Mt. Parnes.
It was from the woods of this mountain that the Acharnians were enabled to carry on that traffic in charcoal for which they were noted among the Athenians. (
Aristoph. Ach. 332.) Their land was fertile ; their population was rough and warlike; and they furnished at the commencement of the Peloponnesian war 3000 hoplites, or a tenth of the whole infantry of the republic. They possessed sanctuaries or altars of Apollo Aguieus, of Heracles, of Athena Hygieia, of Athena Hippia, of Dionysus Melpomenus, and of Dionysus Cissus, so called, because the Acharnians said that the ivy first grew in this demus. One of the plays of Aristophanes bears the name of the Acharnians. Leake supposes that branch of the plain of Athens, which is included between the foot of the hills of
Khassiá and a projection of the range of Aegaleos, stretching eastward from the northern termination of that mountain, to have been the district of the demus Acharnae.
The exact situation of the town has not yet been discovered. Some Hellenic remains, situated 3/4 of a mile to the westward of
Menidhi, have generally been taken for those of Archarnae; but
Menidhi is more probably a corruption of
Παιονίδαι. (
Thuc. 2.13,
19--21; Lucian,
Icaro-Menip. 18;
Pind. N. 2.25;
Paus. 1.31.6;
Athen. p. 234;
Steph. B. sub voce Leake,
Demi of Attica, p. 35, seq.)
