Editing Deme (section)

===First period: 508 – 307/306 BC===
[[File:CarteAttiqueApresClisthene.jpg|thumb|The division of the Athenian city-state (''polis'') into urban (pink), inland (green), and coastal (blue) zones by [[Cleisthenes]]]]
[[Cleisthenes]] divided the landscape in three zones—urban (''[[asty]]''), coastal (''[[Paralia (trittys)|paralia]]'') and inland (''[[mesogeia]]'')—and the 139 demes were organized into 30 groups called ''trittyes'' ("thirds"), ten for each of the zones and into ten tribes, or ''[[phyle|phylai]]'', each composed of three ''trittyes'', one from the coast, one from the city, and one from the inland area.

Cleisthenes also reorganized the [[Boule (ancient Greece)|Boule]], created with 400 members under [[Solon]], so that it had 500 members, 50 from each tribe, each deme having a fixed quota.

The ten tribes were named after legendary heroes and came to have an official order:
{{ordered list|list-style-type=upper-roman
| [[Erechtheis]] (Ἐρεχθηΐς) named after [[Erechtheus]]
| [[Aigeis]] (Αἰγηΐς) named after [[Aegeus]]
| [[Pandionis]] (Πανδιονίς) named after [[Pandion (hero)|Pandion]]
| [[Leontis]] (Λεοντίς) named after [[Leos (mythology)|Leos]], son of [[Orpheus]]
| [[Acamantis]] (Ἀκαμαντίς) named after [[Acamas (son of Theseus)|Acamas]]
| [[Oineis]] (Οἰνηΐς) named after [[Oeneus]]
| [[Kekropis]] (Κεκροπίς) named after [[Cecrops I|Cécrops]]
| [[Hippothontis]] (or Hippothoontis) (Ἱπποθοντίς) named after [[Hippothoon]]
| [[Aiantis]] (Αἰαντίς) named after [[Ajax the Great|Ajax]]
| [[Antiochis (tribe)|Antiochis]] (Ἀντιοχίς) named after Antiochus, son of [[Heracles]]
}}