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[178] εἰ μή μοι … ἄλλο, ‘unless, goddess, thou shouldest make up thy mind to swear me a mighty oath that thou wilt not plot against me any fresh mischief, to my hurt.’ This rendering takes κακόν as substantival and makes πῆμα predicative. Cp. Od.7. 195“κακὸν καὶ πῆμα”, Od.3. 152“πῆμα κακοῖο”. But it is also possible to make “κακόν” adjectival, in direct agreement with “πῆμα”. The important word after all is ἄλλο, contrasting every other possible harm with the immediate horrors of the lonely and dangerous voyage.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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