William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb

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[*] 95. The aorist optative with ἐπειδή or ἐπεί, after that, is referred by the meaning of the particle to time preceding that of the leading verb, like the aorist subjunctive in 90; so that ἐπειδὴ ἴδοι ἀπῄει means after he had seen he (always) went away. This gives the aorist in translation the force of a pluperfect. So after words meaning until, and in the other cases mentioned in 90. E.g.

• “Οὓς μὲν ἴδοι εἰ τάκτως ἰόντας, τίνες τε εἶεν ἠρώτα, καὶ ἐπεὶ πύθοιτο ἐπῄνει,” “he asked any whom he saw marching in good order, who they were; and after he had ascertained, he praised them.” XEN. Cyr. v. 3, 55.
• “Περιεμένομεν ἑκάστοτε ἕως ἀνοιχθείη τὸ δεσμωτήριον: ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἀνοιχθείη, εἰσῄειμεν παρὰ τὸν Σωκράτη,” “we waited each morning until the prison was opened (or had been opened); and after it was opened, we went in to Socrates.” PLAT. Phaed. 59D.

In PLAT. Rep. 331 C, “εἴ τις λάβοι παρὰ φίλου ἀνδρὸς σωφρονοῦντος ὅπλα, εἰ μανεὶς ἀπαιτοῖ” , is thus given by Cicero (Offic. iii. 95): “Si gladium quis apud te sanae mentis deposuerit, repetat insaniens” ; and there can be no doubt that εἰληφὼς εἴη (the equivalent of deposuerit) would have been more exact than λάβοι in Greek (see 91). For a peculiar aorist optative in Il. x. 537, see above (93, end).