Both translations are prose, so neither imposes a verse line on the reader. Butler's register sits in late Victorian formal English: "Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades" keeps the phrasing stately and slightly archaic without being obscure. Rieu writes in a plainer mid-twentieth-century voice, often breaking sentences into shorter units. His opening, "Anger — sing, goddess," front-loads the Greek's first word, while Butler opens with "Sing, O goddess," which follows English word order. In the Athena passage, Butler gives "villain incarnate, first on one side and then on the other," whereas Rieu writes "that mad, double-dealing delinquent," a phrase that reads as colloquial and almost comic. Butler is consistently formal; Rieu is consistently plain, occasionally tipping into casual speech. Butler stays close to the sequence and weight of the Greek, keeping Achilles' two-fate speech in Book 9 compact: "my name will live for ever" against "my life will be long." Rieu expands it, adding "there is no home-coming for me" and "I shall be spared an early death," giving the reader more context at the cost of Achilles' terseness. In the leaves simile in Book 6, Butler adds "the new spring up as the old are passing away," a line with no Greek equivalent, while Rieu cuts directly to "one generation grows, the other fades," keeping it shorter. Butler read widely across classical literature and produced several translations; Rieu produced his Iliad for the newly launched Penguin Classics series, aiming at readers without Greek.
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.
Anger — sing, goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that accursed anger, which brought the Greeks endless sufferings and sent the mighty souls of many warriors to Hades, leaving their bodies as carrion for the dogs and a feast for the birds; and Zeus' purpose was fulfilled. It all began when Agamemnon lord of men and godlike Achilles quarrelled and parted.