Butler writes in prose, and his sentences follow a plain, early-twentieth-century register that reads like educated Victorian English. He uses formal but not archaic diction: "countless ills," "brave soul," "man after my own heart." The rhythm is flat and even, which suits reading silently on the page. Reck writes in verse, and his lines are shorter and more compressed. His diction runs contemporary, sometimes colloquial: "crook," "lunatic," "renegade," "double-crosser" in the Athena passage, and "why whimper" in Book 21. In the leaves passage, Butler adds an explanatory phrase, "those of autumn," that has no equivalent in the Greek, while Reck keeps the image tight: "wind spins them to the ground." Reck's register shifts noticeably between passages, moving from plain to blunt depending on the speaker. Butler prioritises readability and forward momentum. His prose removes the verse structure entirely and occasionally smooths over Greek idiom, as when he renders Achilles' choice in Book 9 as simply "my name will live for ever" without the phrase "decent obscurity" that Reck adds for the alternative fate. Reck keeps closer to the syntax of individual lines and names Thetis as "silverfoot" in the same passage, preserving the epithet Butler drops. Reck also retains the double structure of Achilles' two fates more fully. The trade-off is that Reck's colloquial moments can sit uneasily against heroic content, while Butler's prose moves quickly but loses the weight that the original's line breaks carry.
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, Achilles' maniac rage:
ruinous thing! it roused a thousand sorrows
and hurled many souls of mighty warriors
to Hades, made their bodies food for dogs
and carrion birds—as Zeus's will foredoomed—
from the time relentless strife came between
Atreus' son, a king, and brave Achilles.