I wonder for a while how a dropping vowel can make a sentence ambiguous for a novice mind
an example from JACT Grammar and exercise 2nd ed, test exercise chptr 10 line 18
τι ου καλουμεν δητα την λυσιστρατην, η ποιησαιτ’αν ημιν σπονδας μονη;
at first, in my mind I read this sentence as
‘why dont we call Lisistrata then, who alone you would make for us truce?’
I read ποιησαιτ’αν as ποιησαιτε αν. but when I checked the answer key JACT as follows
‘why then dont we call Lisistrata, who alone could make a treaty for us?’
it seems that JACT put it as ποιησαιτο αν? what am I missing here? is there something about the relatif clause η that I miss?
so we must take the verb as 3rd sing fem middle? is the self interest nuance present? can we read this as 'who alone would-make-treaty-for-her-own-sake-also for us?
Of course only a participle would change according to the gender. As for the second question, I wouldn’t read too much in this middle voice, but I leave the definitive answer to the more expert.
ποιησαιτ’ αν by itself could represent ποιησαιτε αν, but that would be nonsense after nom. ἥ, which has to be the subject of the clause, as bedwere pointed out. So we need the verb to be 3 sing., whether active or middle. In context there’s no ambiguity.
ποιεῖσθαι middle is very common, routinely used with σπονδας and with any number of other things that you don’t literally “make” or manufacture. It’s not always helpful to think in terms of self-interest, though that sense is present; people make truces for themselves. But in English it’s simply “make a truce,” and as bedwere says you don’t want to read too much into the use of the middle.
A practiced reader would recognize that the first half is an iambic trimeter. The sentence is lightly adapted from Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. The original lines are
τί οὐ καλοῦμεν δῆτα τὴν Λυσιστράτην,
ἥπερ διαλλάξειεν ἡμᾶς ἂν μόνη;
So the first part of the sentence is authentic unadapted Aristophanes, and the JACT course just rewrites the second verse. διαλλάσσω mean to “reconcile,” so you should now be able to understand the exact sentence that Aristophanes wrote in this genuinely funny comedy of his.