It derives from
δύνημι, δύναμαι ['I am able']:[1] [it is] subjunctive,
ἐὰν δύνωμαι ['if I were able'] [1]. Every subjunctive which has an active form [which is] perispomenon[2] is properispomenon[3] [sc. in the middle-passive form]:
ἱστῶ ['I set'],
ἐὰν ἱστῶμαι ['if I were set']. But if [a verb] does not have an active form, it is proparoxytone[4] [sc. in the middle-passive form]:
δύνωμαι ['I were able'],
δύνωνται ['they were able'].[5]
And
Homer [writes]: “If I am able to fulfill, and it is a practicable thing”. For [
Aphrodite] has set a limit [saying that] the assignment received needs to be possible to fulfill and the matter itself has to be suitable for fulfillment.[6]
[1]
δύναμαι is a deponent verb and actually there are no records in Greek writers of this theoretical active form
δύνημι . Nonetheless it occurs in different lexicographic texts, e.g. Etymologicum Magnum and Etymologicum Gudianum, always to explain
δύναμαι . 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: “
δύνωνται : “from
δύνημι : from which the passive
δύναμαι ; the subjunctive,
ἐὰν δύνωμαι . And it should be
ἐὰν δυνῶμαι , like
τιθῶμαι , 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.
τίθημι ,
ἐὰν τιθῶμαι ,
ἵστημι ,
ἐὰν ἰστῶμαι . But when this form does not occur in practice, then [in the middle-passive form] it is proparoxytone: e.g.
δύνημι, ἐὰν δύνωμαι , for
δύνημι does not occur in practice. And the plural
δύνωνται ”. Here Etym.Magn. seems not to take into account
-νυμι verbs, which are proparoxytone in the subjunctive middle-passive form: e.g.
δείκνυμι , in subjunctive form
δεικνύωμαι .
[2] Perispomenon: a word with circumflex accent on the last syllable.
[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
δύνημι does not exist in practice; cf. n.1 above.
[6]
Homer,
Iliad 14.196 (with the participle
τετελεσμένον translated according to G. Autenrieth: see web address 1 below), followed by Aristonicus’ scholion on the line.
No. of records found: 1
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