αὐτὴ ἡ ἰατρική ἐστιν πονηρά, ἢ ἄλλη τις τέχνη ἔσθ’ ὅτι προσδεῖταί τινος ἀρετῆς – …;
I am wondering what is precisely the force of ὅτι here. Based on the context, it seems to me that its place is to be taken by a relative pronoun (which, then, would be feminine): " … or is there any other skill which is in need of any excellence …?"
But, to begin with, is ὅτι to be construed here as “ὅ τι”, as Adam and Shorey have it in their editions (I know that Burnet would have printed it all the same the way he did even if he thought so)?
LSJ say: " neut. ὅ τι used abs. as a Conj., v. ὅ τι". I could not find an entry for “ὅ τι”, and am not sure what conjunction exactly would fit the context.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
p.s. As I think more of it, I see two possibilities.
(1) If I follow Adam and Shorey, I probably should take ἔσθ’ with ὅτι, by analogy with “ἔσθ’ ὅτε”:
“…or is any other skill in any way whatsoever in need of any excellence…?”
(2) Otherwise, I should probably supply πονηρά with ἔσθ’:
“…or is any other skill [in sorry plight] because it is in need of some excellence…?”
Does any of the two make sense? And if so, which makes more sense?