Here is a contemporary sample of translating the “4th class conditional [1]”Paul Derouda wrote:
As for the optative and subjunctive, when to use which, etc... Those are quite a bit more complicated (at least for me). I think for many people (like for me) it's so complicated that the best approach is just to keep reading Greek until you get it instinctively. Every language language has this kind of illogical stuff you just have to get around somehow; when it's your native language, you just don't notice it.
the construction we are looking at isEuripides Trag., Iphigenia Line 834
{Αχ.} καλῶς ἔλεξας ἐν βραχεῖ τὰ καίρια·
αἰσχρὸν δέ μοι γυναιξὶ συμβάλλειν λόγους.
{Κλ.} μεῖνον – τί φεύγεις; – δεξιάν τ' ἐμῆι χερὶ
σύναψον, ἀρχὴν μακαρίων νυμφευμάτων.
{Αχ.} τί φήις; ἐγώ σοι δεξιάν; αἰδοίμεθ' ἂν
Ἀγαμέμνον', εἰ ψαύοιμεν ὧν μή μοι θέμις.
where the apodosis αἰδοίμεθ' ἂν Ἀγαμέμνον' precedes the protasis εἰ ψαύοιμεν ὧν μή μοι θέμις. David Kovacs translates this:αἰδοίμεθ' ἂν
Ἀγαμέμνον', εἰ ψαύοιμεν ὧν μή μοι θέμις.
“I would feel same before Agamemnon **if I touched what I had no right to.”
Notice the simplicity of the **protasis. There are no hedge words, no paraphrasing to emphasize the improbable nature of the scenario presented for consideration.
C. Stirling Bartholomew
[1]According to the customary classification “4th class conditional” has optatives in both the protasis and the apodosis. The protasis has EI + optative. The apodosis AN + optative or something else. This was considered intermediate New Testament Greek 20 years ago, found in two intermediate grammars, S .E. Porter:1992 page 263, R. A. Young:1994 page 227.