A grammar of the Homeric dialect - Wilbourhall.org

74 INFINITIVE. [85.
85.]
The Infinitive Active is formed
(i) In Non-Thematic Tenses (except the Aor. in -o-a) by the
Suffixes -jAeycu, -flee, -eixu, -yea.
Of these -jjiemi is the most usual, as 0e-/zei>ctt, yrco-juez/at, fxiyrjjuemi,
tb-fJLevai, TeQva-pevai, fevy-zw-jueyat occurs :
-jxei/
after short
vowels, as t-juez;, do-jutez>, rcOvd-^v, op-vv-ptv also in
; ejujuez> (five
times, but always where we may write ejutjuez/), t6-/xez;(Il. 11.719),
and ^tvy-vv-^tv (II. 16. 145),
in which the long
u is irregular.
The full Suffix -eVai only occurs in t-eVat but
;
there are many
vowel or
other Infinitives in -mi, all of them containing a long
diphthong in which an e may be supposed to have been absorbed ;
as bovvcu (for So-eWi, see Max Miiller, Chips, iv. 56), Oelvcu,
(TTrjvai, firjvciLj bvvcu, yv&vai) aXoivai, /3tai, afjvai, (poprj-vai,
bibovvai (II. 24. 425). The original form of the Suffix seems to
have been -
From t/tt (, cfttvcu, ffJifv,
and eFi/at. Of these
eleven, fpfv are irregular ; they follow the analogy of Offifvai, &c. Cp. the
I Plur. efiv (Soph. El. 21). From cf-/it
are formed "1-jj.fvcu, t-pfv, and i-4vcu.
In one place (II. 20. 365) ipcvcu is scanned with I perhaps in imitation of
e/i/icvat (Solmsen, K. Z. xxix. 72).
The common Attic Present Infinitives Iffrd-vai, TtOt-vai, 8i56-vai, 8eiK-vv-vai,
&c., as well as the Perfect Infinitives in -eVcu, are entirely unknown in
Homer.
(2) In Thematic Tenses by -e-pecai, -c'-pei', -cii/ ;
as etV-
The Ending
-e-cii/
only occurs in the Thematic Aor., and is
anomalous ; compare j3a\--iv (Stem fiaXt-) and fid\\-iv (Stem
/3aAAe-).
The original ending was doubtless -itv : thus-
Stern (3a\-, Inf. fia\4-V, contr. (3aXeiv.
/3aA.Ae-, j8(iAXe-er, ,, f3d\\iv.
In the Aor. the metre usually allows us to restore -CCK (see
Renner, Curt. Stud. i. 2. p. 33).
It is possible that the forms (3a\f-eiv, &c., are genuine, since -cev might pass
into -6iv from the analogy of the Pres. Inf. in -civ, just as in the Rhodian
dialect -ejjiev
became -fp,eiv.
Leo Meyer (Vergl. Gr. ii. 284) proposed to read
@a\-fj,fv, &c. But, as Renner points out the (I. c.), change from -ecv to -ceiv is
very much slighter, indeed is a mere matter of spelling. Original /SaXe^ev,
&c. would probably have been retained.
(3) The Aor. in -ad forms -aai, as OTTJ-CT-CU.
(4) The Inf. Middle is formed by -a0cu : (3\r)-a-9ai, 7re