Butler writes in continuous prose, and his register sits somewhere between Victorian formal and plain English. He uses words like "goodly" and "ere" that belong to the nineteenth century but stops short of deliberately archaic poeticizing. Alexander writes in verse, giving each line a distinct weight, and her diction is closer to contemporary usage while keeping formal enough distance from everyday speech. The difference is visible in the Book 9 passage on glory: Butler gives "my name will live for ever," a clean clause that reads like polished summary, while Alexander gives "my glory will be undying," which preserves the Greek word *kleos* in its two-part contrast with *nostos*. Butler's prose moves faster but absorbs much of Homer's line-by-line structure into longer, smoother units. Butler makes the story easy to follow. He resolves ambiguities, compresses the repeated formulas, and cuts the physical detail. In the Book 21 killing, he skips entirely the spear dropped to the ground, the killer drawing the sword, the sword entering at the collarbone, and the blood soaking the earth. What he gives is Achilles taunting; the death itself disappears. Alexander keeps that sequence, including "the double-edged sword" going in and the blood running. Her translation is tied closely to line count and image count in the Greek, which makes it slower and sometimes dense, as in the Athena speech where "declaiming aloud pledged" is awkward on the page. Butler reads quickly and cleanly; Alexander gives more of what Homer actually put in each line.
Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another.
Wrath—sing, goddess, of the ruinous wrath of Peleus' son Achilles,
that inflicted woes without number upon the Achaeans,
hurled forth to Hades many strong souls of warriors
and rendered their bodies prey for the dogs,
for all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished;
sing from when they two first stood in conflict—
Atreus' son, lord of men, and godlike Achilles.