Mission Statement

"There was once a dream called Macedonia! You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile."

Macedonia (ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝIΑ) once an ancient kingdom ruled by the royal Argead dynasty and home to the Macedonians, was centered in its earliest years on the shores north-west of the Aegean sea bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south.

The name Pelasgian was used by classical writers to either refer to populations that were the ancestors or forerunners of the inhabitants living primarily in South-East Europe especially in the Aegean and Macedonia . In general, Pelasgian has come to mean more broadly all the early indigenous inhabitants of the region and their cultures. Populations identified as Pelasgian spoke a language or languages that at the time the writers and historians such as Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Platon and others identified as "barbaric".

Large parts of South-East Europe and the Aegean had once spoke Pelasgian before becoming Venetic, Phrygian, Macedonian, Thracian, Illyrian , Etruscan, Ionic, Aeolic, and other languages and dialects. All forms of these languages and dialects although being distinct, clearly interrelated with each other, derive from a common ancestor called Proto-Indo-European.

Ancient Macedonian, the language of the ancient Macedonians, considered up to now either a separate and distinct Indo-European or a separate Hellenic language which was spoken in the Kingdom of Macedonia. This language was closely related to Illyrian, Thracian, Ionic, Aeolic, and other languages and dialects. It was marginalized by the use of Attic and Ionian by the Macedonian royal aristocracy during the 4th century BC, while the vernacular was used by the common Macedonians.

Koine was formed and created as a universal language within the Macedonian Empire of Alexander of Macedon referred to as "the common" language. Mostly used by aristocracy, poets and historians, the newly formed language was used from the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt to the Seleucid Empire of Mesopotamia, Bactria and further. It served as the lingua franca or Esperanto of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries. As a consequence of the Macedonians' role in the formation of the Koine, Macedonian contributed elements in this common language as well as other languages and dialects.

Due to the fragmentary attestation of the ancient Macedonian language, various interpretations and theories have emerged the last centuries for which no real long term study and detailed fact finding has been done consistently, independently and without bias.

Its influence on other ancient languages and vice versa, through the centuries has been of interest to the wider linguistic community. Also its role in influencing and defining certain aspects of current contemporary literary languages of some modern political nations in South-East Europe has not been clearly analyzed and presented.

For centuries the ancient Macedonian Language has been declining and has almost disappeared. There are several reasons why the ancient Macedonian Language has experienced this decline over the centuries: the fact that the language was primarily oral, loss of status with the Macedonian royals and aristocrats, creation and the introduction of Koine as lingua-franca in the Empire, disunity after the fall of the Macedonian Empire, the Macedonian-Roman wars and the decline during the Byzantine Empire under the Macedonian dynasty.

Macedonia is not an exclusive right, but part of the cultural-historical identity of all South-East European demos(es) representing modern political nations based on the Macedonian ethnos, culture and language, regardless of differences in reading history in terms of current geopolitics, even regardless of the differences between current contemporary literary languages as a product of the modern political nations!

This is the reason why Ἥλιος • Helios - Macedonian Institute for Cultural, Linguistic and Scientific Studies is formed. Its name refers not only to one of the oldest Macedonian symbols - the God and the personification of the Sun, but also to the enlightenment of the human soul and reason, search for the truth and preservation of the Macedonian cultural, linguistic, archaeological and historical heritage.

Dedicated to all who feel and truly believe they are Macedonian or from Macedonian descent, regardless of the current modern political nations!

Fortune favors the bold!

Helios • Macedonian Institute for Cultural, Linguistic and Scientific Studies