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[83] ἀνεκτὸν ἔχει κακόν ‘has in it (brings with it, involves) an endurable ill.’ So Faesi and the older commentators, rightly. Ameis objects that “ἔχω” cannot be shown to have this meaning. Accordingly he takes τό as an acc., and supplies “τις” as nom. from the following clause “ὁππότε κέν τις κτλ.”: ‘a man suffers an endurable evil when he’ &c. But this is too artificial, and is against the Homeric usage of the correlatives “τὸ—ὅτε” (e. g. Il.15. 207“ἐσθλὸν καὶ τὸ τέτυκται ὅτ᾽ ἄγγελος αἴσιμα εἰδῇ”), in which “τό” means the whole fact or state of things described by the clause with “ὅτε”. Here (e. g.) “τὸ—ὁππότε κέν τις κλαίῃ” would be in later prose (“ἀνεκτὸν ἔχει κακὸν”) “τὸ κλαίειν τινά”. As to “ἔχω” the only question is whether the phrase “ἔχειν κακόν”, which is said of a person suffering evil, may be said of a state of things. We may compare the Attic phrases such as “ἀγανάκτησιν ἔχει, κατάμεμψιν ἔχει” (Thuc. ), “ταῦτ᾽ ἀπιστίαν ἔχει, ταῦτ᾽ ὀργὴν ἔχει” (Demosth.). Some take κακόν as a nom., and ἔχει=“ἔχει τινά”: but this absolute use of “ἔχω” is doubtful. Possibly, however, ἔχει is an old corruption for ἕπει, as in 12. 209 “οὐ μὲν δὴ τόδε μεῖζον ἕπει κακόν” (so Ameis, La Roche: vulg. “ἔπι κακόν”). In that place, it is worth noting, Zen. read ἔχει.

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

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