It is formed out of
du/nhmi, du/namai ["I am able"]:[1] [it is] subjunctive, [as in]
e)a\n du/nwmai ["if I were able"] [1]. Every subjunctive which has an active voice[which is] perispomenon[2] is properispomenon[3] [sc. in the middle/passive]:
i(stw= ["I set"],
e)a\n i(stw=mai ["if I were set"]. But if [a verb] does not have an active voice, it is proparoxytone[4] [sc. in the middle-passive]:
du/nwmai ["I were able"],
du/nwntai ["they were able"].[5]
And
Homer [writes]: "if I am able to fulfil, and it is a practicable thing". For [Aphrodite] has set a limit [saying that] the assignment received needs to be possible to fulfil and the matter itself has to be suitable for fulfillment.[6]
*du/nwmai: gi/netai e)k tou= du/nhmi, du/namai: to\ u(potaktiko/n, e)a\n du/nwmai. pa=n de\ u(potaktiko\n e)/xon e)nerghtiko\n perispw/menon properispa=tai: i(stw=, e)a\n i(stw=mai. e)a\n de\ ou)k e)/xh| e)nerghtiko/n, proparocu/netai: du/nwmai, du/nwntai. kai\ *(/omhros: ei) du/namai tele/sai ge, kai\ ei) tetelesme/non e)sti/. periw/rike ga\r to\n e)pidexo/menon tele/sai dunato\n ei)=nai dei=n, kai\ au)to\ to\ pra=gma eu)/qeton ei)=nai pro\s th\n telei/wsin.
[1]
du/namai is a deponent verb, and this theoretical active form
du/nhmi is attested only in lexicographic texts, e.g.
Etymologicum Magnum and
Etymologicum Gudianum, always in explanation of
du/namai. In
Etym.Magn. 290.24 (probably taken from
Choeroboscus’
commentaries on the Psalms) the same verb is glossed in the subjunctive mood, as here, but in the third person plural: "
du/nwntai: from
du/nhmi: from which [come] the passive
du/namai; the subjunctive,
e)a\n du/nwmai. And it should be
e)a\n dunw=mai, like
tiqw=mai, but there is a rule saying that a -mi verb is properispomenon in the subjunctive [middle-passive], whenever the present [active] form occurs in practice: e.g.
ti/qhmi,
e)a\n tiqw=mai,
i(/sthmi,
e)a\n i)stw=mai. But when this form does not occur in practice, then [in the middle-passive form] it is proparoxytone: e.g.
du/nhmi, e)a\n du/nwmai, for
du/nhmi does not occur in practice. And the plural [is]
du/nwntai." Here
Etym.Magn. seems not to take into account
-numi verbs, which are proparoxytone in the subjunctive middle/passive voice: e.g.
dei/knumi, subjunctive
deiknu/wmai.
[2] Perispomenon: a word with circumflex accent on the last syllable: verbs that are perispomenon in the active voice are what we call contract verbs.
[3] Properispomenon: a word with circumflex accent on the penult. Nonetheless there is at least an exception for the second person singular, which is perispomenon also in the middle-passive form.
[4] Proparoxytone: a word with acute accent on the antepenult.
[5] Even if not explicitly as in
Etymologicum Magnum, the compiler is recognising that the form
du/nhmi does not exist in practice; cf. n.1 above.
[6]
Homer,
Iliad 14.196 (with the participle
tetelesme/non translated according to G. Autenrieth: see web address 1 below), followed by Aristonicus’ scholion on the line.
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