Butler writes in continuous prose, which means his sentences carry several ideas across a long breath before stopping. Jordan works in lines, so each unit of thought ends sooner, and the reader feels each beat more distinctly. The register differs just as much. Butler's 1898 diction reaches toward formal Victorian English: "many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades" has a stately, slightly antique weight. Jordan's language is contemporary and direct: "ruinous, that caused the Greeks untold ordeals" moves faster and asks less of the reader. In the Book 9 passage, Butler compresses Achilles' choice into a single sentence: "my name will live for ever." Jordan expands it into seven lines, giving each branch of the choice its own line. Butler prizes compression and readability. He removes the invocation's second half entirely in the Book 1 passage, cutting straight to the quarrel, which keeps pace up but loses the ritual texture of the Greek. Jordan stays closer to the sequence of Homer's clauses, including "Zeus's will was done" in a position that mirrors the original. The trade is that Butler reads naturally to someone with no prior knowledge of epic, while Jordan rewards a reader willing to move slowly through the lines. In the Book 21 killing scene, Butler gives Achilles real menace in plain speech: "you too shall die." Jordan adds "my own splendor, my size," which holds more of what the Greek (καλός τε μέγας τε) actually says. Butler's prose speeds the narrative; Jordan's verse records more of it.
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.
Sing, goddess, of Peleus' son Achilles' anger,
ruinous, that caused the Greeks untold ordeals,
consigned to Hades countless valiant souls,
heroes, and left their bodies prey for dogs
or feast for vultures. Zeus's will was done
from when those two first quarreled and split apart,
the king, Agamemnon, and matchless Achilles.