Subject: Makedonikh Zvh (Macedonian Life) Topic: misc-news From: palaska@mma.the.forthnet.gr (Museum of the Macedonian Struggle) To Periodiko "Makedonikh Zvh" koinopoiei tria arthra: AMBITIOUS EFFORT STARTING FROM THESSALONIKI THE GREEK LINGUAL TREASURE IN CD' S THROUGH THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED INSTITUTE OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE An ambitious effort for the support and dispersion of the greek language worldwide has started in Thessaloniki with the first meeting of the Administrative Council of the Institute of the Greek Language. The Institute of the Greek Language which is of a non - profiteering character was established according to a special article in the law 2083/92 concerniug the "modernization of the Universities". It is due to the courageons initiative of the ex - Minister of Education, Mr. Dem. Fatouros, who despite the unfavourable situations has come to the conclusion that the Institute should have its headquarters in Thessaloniki and has so far secured sufficient sources for the decent fulfilment of the national aims. It is about a unique institution in the country aiming mainly at the reinforcement, in general, and support of the greek language along with the strengthening of the national identity of the Greeks of the Dispersion as well as the organisation of the teaching to adult foreigners in the interior and exterior of Greece. Moreover, it aims at the Greek teachers' support abroad and acquiring more teaching material. According to its administration, the Institute of the Greek Language will primarily make an attempt to have a close co - operation with the native and foreign universities as well as similar research institutions, while its co - operation with the "Thesaurus of the Greek Language" which is a research centre founded by the Professor in the University of California Mrs Marianna Mac Donald, who is also the sponsor of it, has already been finalized. The american research team has come up with a record of ancient greek tests of 75.000.000 words which is available to the international research in CD - ROM. Through that co - operation the Institute of the Greek Language will undertake to co - ordinate the international community of the Buzantinologists in a gigantic effort to compile the collected works of the Byzantine authors on an electronic base. After the necessary philological research, the elements will be recorded in the same CD ROM of the "Thesaurus of the Greek Language". The same wish for the co - operation was also expressed by the Greek Prime Minister Mr. Andreas Papandreou in a meeting with the American Professor some months ago. Moreover, the Institute of the Greek Language is going to obtain the valuable record of the Greek - English Dictionary of the eminent linguist Mr. Demetrios Georgakas who worked for forty years in the University of Northern California. It is about the greatest and most systematic base of documents of the greek language that exists all over the world. Unfortunately, it did not end up in the compilation of an analytical dictionary. After the Institute has transfered the record from the United States, it is going to turn the record into an electronic base of documents which will bear the form of a CD - ROM and will be available to libraries, researchers and teachers of Contemporary Greek all over the world. * Lastly, the Institute has the acquiescence of the Professor Mr Emmanuil Criaras for the concession of the record concerning the Byzantine language which Mr. Criaras has been compiling in a dictionary and publishing it since 1969. So far thirteen volumes have been published and seven more are expected to come. * In the immediate aims of the Institute there is also the creation of an electronic record of the contemporary greek language with material coming from a wide spectrum of leaflets and books. If the attempt concerning all the above succeeds, there will be a gathering of the lingual treasure of the greek language from all the eras in one and only place - an accomplishment without precedent. The choice of Thessaloniki has been characterised especially successful as the Headquarters of the Institute which apart from the Philosophical School of the Aristotelean University, there is also as series of rich philological libraries and special research centres (such a the Institute of Greek Studies - The Foundation of Manolis Triantafillidis - The Centre of Byzantine Research - The Society of the Macedonian Studies - IMXA - The Foundation of the Reverend Studies) as well as magazines of utmost scientific importance ("Greek", "Macedonian", "The Philologist"). One of the institute's aims is the reinforcement of the school where the greek language has been taught to thousands of foreigner students. The Institute, which comes under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and has received sufficient subsidy from the government, is housed temporarily on a floor of 500 square metres in one of the buildings of the Municipality of Kalamaria and its proper operation is expected to start at the end of the year. According to the government's resolution, the President of the Institute has been appointed to a five - year - authorization and the Professor D. N. Maronitis is going to be the representative of the Minister of Education. The Professor of Philology of the Aristotelean University Mr I. Kazazis will be the deputy of Mr. Maronitis. The other members will be: An - Phoebus Christidis - Assistant Professor in the Philological School of the Aristotelean University, Anastasios Megas, Professor in the Philological School of the Aristotelean University, Dem. Kayialis, Assistant Professor in the University of Cyprus, Pericles Nearhos, Councellor and Representative of the Ministry of International Affairs (his deputy is Mrs. Panayota Rally), Nasos Vayenas, Professor in the University in Athens as representative of the Ministry of Culture (his deputy is M. Kopidakis, Professor in the Aristotelean University). If all the aims of the Institute of the Greek Language are fulfiled, it is certain that Thessaloniki will become the omphalos of the philological activities in the country, the most significant nucleus of the greek language all over Europe and a centre of steady co - operation and meeting of the philhellenes from all over the world. ------------------------------------------------------ ALEXANDER THE GREAT - PRIDE OF THE GREEKS No ancient Greek is more revered by modern Greeks than Alexander the Great, son of Phillip II of Macedon by his fourth wife, Olympia of Epirus. Look at the glorious, heroic youth of the equestrian statue on the waterfront at Thessaloniki, named after his halfsister, Phillip's daughter by his fifth wife, Nikesipolis of Thessaly. Of whom else could a nation be so proud? A philosopher? A poet? A play - wright? A Pericles? Alexander the Great began his reign with a number of advantages, according to top specialist in ancient Macedonian history, Professor N.G.L. Hammond, a Cambridge classicist: He took over a large, united kingdom. Able advisors surrounded the throne. He had the best army in the world, well trained, mobile, versatile, full of the confidence born of success. The early kingdom of Macedonia extended from Mt. Olympus north to the River Axios, about 40 kilometers south of today's Skopje. The capital was Aegeae, today's Vergina. Writing about 700 BC, Hesiod described Macedonian as Greek - speaking, descended from Macedon, one of the five founders of Greek tribes, each speaking a different dialect. (Others were Doris with Dorian, Xouthoos with Ionaian, Aelos with Aeolic and Magens with the Magnesian dialect). Ancient Macedon rose to cultural distinction by the end of the 5th century BC, attracting the Athenian play - wright, Euripides, among others to its court. Under Phillip II, the state consolidated its power, subjugating the whole of Greece except the south Italian and Sicilian region known Magna Graecia. After his assassination in 336 BC, 20 year - old Alexander took up the eastern campaign preparations and conquered a third of the known inhabited world. From adding Asia Minor and Persia to his heritage, he pressed on east to Babylonia and Egypt, to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Alexander left Greek or Asian satraps, or generals, in charge but encouraged local systems of government, law and religion. His aim was coexistence and the development of Asia along Hellenic lines. To that end he founded 70 cities with mixed European and Asian populations, making Greek the official language and establishing schools promoting Greek philosophy and literature. He encouraged mixed marriages and he himself married an Iranian, Roxane. The peaceful conditions and huge open market Alexander created became the basis of the long prosperity of Hellenistic times. His cities evolved into cosmopolitan cultural cities like Alexandria, Egypt. He died in Babylonia, at age 33, on June 10, 323 BC, before Roxane bore his son, Alexander IV, who survived until the age of 13, when he was murdered with his mother. Macedonia remained an important region throughout Roman imperial days, as the substantial Roman ruins show. Once the Roman Empire was divided into two, the region gradually orientated itself to face Constantinople and the east. From about 800 AD, the Byzantine province of Macedonia was the "bulwark and beacon" of the Balkans, says historian Ann Tsitouridou. By the end of the 14th Century, the shrunken empire consisted almost solely of Constantinople and Thessaloniki, plus tiny, far - flung Mistra near Sparta, in the southen Peloponnese. Any unrest in Byzantine Macedonia was on the part of Slavs, who were in the process of being assimilated after their advent since the 6th Century from regions north of the Carpathians in the Pripet marshlands around the Dneiper. Ethnic cleansing and forcible resettlement was tried, but backfired, since Slavs tended to prefer fighting with Arabs against Byzantines. So Byzantinization or assimilation became the preferred policy. The process was almost complete by the 9th Century, when Macedonian Slavs were proud of their cultural center at the monastery of St. Panteleimon at Ochrid under Saints Clement and Naum, followers of Cyril and Methodios, who adapted written Greek for the Slavic tongue, creating the Cyrillic alphabet. While symbiosis thus evolved between Greeks and the Slavs in Byzantine Macedonia, even in the 10th Century, though Slavs would sing and pray in Greek, uprisings still occurred, says Eleni Glykatzi - Ahrweiler, professor of Byzantine history at the University of Paris. Round today's Skopje, in nortern Byzantine - Macedonia, Bulgarian influence, spearheaded by King Samuel, intruded in the 10th Century but Serbs, led by Stefan Dusan won out, until defeated by the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo in the late 14ht Century, 1389. Known as Uskub, the town became the capital of the vilayet or canton of Kosovo as part of Ottoman Bulgaria until 1912. In Balkan infrastructure, Uskub was the gateway to the east on the road from Ragusa (Dubrovnik) over the Albanian and Montenegrin mountains to Istanbul. Because of cheap labor and cost of living, it became a market town, where Ragusan traders dealt in English kerseys and Italian woollen clothes; in exchange for raw wool and skins from Vlach shepherds. The area was noted for its orchards until tobacco and maize were introduced in the 16th Century. Kosovo and Uskub were at the heart of the region where borders were in a state of flux after the First Balkan War in 1912, when a coalition of Serbs, Montenegrins, Bulgarians and Greeks drove out the Turks after their occupation lasting more than 500 years. Inhabitants of the region objected to being assimilated or lumped with Serbs in inter - war years, hence a new identity was manufactured in the post - Second World War settlement. Signifying the change, the name Macedonia was adopted. The American State Department expressed concern at the time in regard to Yugoslav propaganda for the notion of a Macedonian nation cut off from its motherland. But to no avail. The notion took root. By 1962, an English lecturer at Skopje University, interviewed for a BBC radio feature series, said: "If one thinks of what really represents old Macedonia, one's faced with the fact that Macedonia has a history, a history which included Alexander the Great.." Alexander's tomb has been lost, perhaps forever. So was Philip's. Taking a tip from Hammond, in 1977 Greek archaeologists excavated a tomb at Vergina. Inside they found many rich grave gifts and an elaborate rich gold chest embossed on the lid with a 16 - rayed sun. This was known from Herodotus to have been the symbol of the kings of ancient Macedon, as an early Macedonian ruler, Perdiccas, once took a job as a laborer and accepted wages in the form of sunlight. In the chest, under a gold wreath, were cremated human remains. Following a British suggestion, a plaster cast was made of the skull in 1979, and a face modelled for it at the Manchester University Medical School. Plastic surgeons noticed healed fractures on the forehead and right cheek bone, and a nick on the right brow. Such injuries they thought would have been caused by an object falling from above, as on building sites. Phillip II had lost his right eye when besieging the Theramic Gulf city of Methone, wrote Demosthenes. A commentator on the historian added that the injury was sustained from an arrow shot down from the city walls. The skull evidence linked with the splendor of the finds, the lid adornment symbol and the royal hunt wall painting depicting figures indentifiable as Alexander and Phillip, suggested the tomb was probably that of the great 4th century king of Macedon. The discovery was announced at the archaeological conference in Thessaloniki in 1983. Greeks since that date, especially Macedonian Greeks, have taken pride in using the 16 - rayed sun of Vergina as their symbol. The gold chest or larnax displayed in Thessaloniki's archaeological museum draws a constant stream of admiring viewers. * The above article was published for the Greek News by Mr. Cecil Telford. ----------------------- JAM AT THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF THESSALONIKI There have been a lot of visitors so far in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. Firstly there have been a lot of German visitors as well as British and French ones. Italian visitors are expected to come in August. The number of Scandinavian visitors has decreased, though. Many Greek people have shown their preference to spend their summer holiday in Northern Greece. The results were broadcast by the Macedonian News Agency after a survey it had conducted concerning the visitors of the museum who wish to be informed through its exhibits about the history of the Macedonian Hellenism. As it is stressed in the announcement of the Macedonian News Agency, the impressions of the majority of the visitors are positive and most of them leave the museum after they have been convinced of the Greek character of Macedonia. The foreign visitors are especially impressed by the variety as well as the presentation and preservation of the exhibits. There is quite a number ot visitors who stress the necessity for an extension of the museum so that the detailed presentation of the exhibits from Macedonia can be achieved.