Iliad 1:78 a)

[Bert]

[face=SPIonic]h)= ga\r o)i/omai a)/ndra xolwse/men, o(\j me/ga pa/ntwn[/face]

Is [face=SPIonic]o)i/omai [/face]middle of [face=SPIonic]o)i/w[/face]? and if so, does that make its meaning -I am thinking to myself-?

[Paul]

Hi Bert,

As Cunliffe points out, with a future infinitive it means to 'think', 'expect', or 'deem'.

But more generally, in that the 'action' of thinking seems to affect the thinker, the middle voice makes sense for this verb.

Cordially,

Paul

[annis]

Is [face=SPIonic]o)i/omai [/face]middle of [face=SPIonic]o)i/w[/face]? and if so, does that make its meaning -I am thinking to myself-?

I believe in Homer the middle is most common for this verb.

Sometimes it's very hard to tell what's going on with the true significance of the middle. For example, why do futures of many verbs tend to prefer the middle, even when the present is active? Dialects had different defaults, and if Aristophanes wanted to tag a character as non-Athenian Greek he would have them switch around some middles and actives, in addition to some phonetics quirks.

Finally, this middle/active difference between dialects was something Homer could use to allow him to pick the best word for a line, such as [face=spionic]e)/fh[/face] vs. (agumentless) [face=spionic]fa/to[/face].