Lattimore writes in long, unrhymed lines that follow the forward push of the Greek hexameter. His diction pulls toward the archaic: "hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls / of heroes" keeps the Greek word order, which slows the reader down and creates a slightly foreign texture. Fitzgerald's lines are shorter and more varied in length, and his register is closer to mid-century American speech. Where Lattimore gives "that double-faced liar," Fitzgerald writes "two-faced everywhere," which is plainer and more immediate. In the leaves passage from Book 6, Lattimore opens flatly with "As is the generation of leaves, so is that of humanity," while Fitzgerald starts with "Very like leaves," a compression that moves faster. Each approach produces a different reading pace. Lattimore stays close to the Greek syntax and repeats formulaic phrases consistently across the whole poem, which reflects a scholarly commitment to Homer's oral patterns. That consistency gives a reader a sense of the poem's structure, but it also produces stretches of prose that feel stiff in English. Fitzgerald changes word order and cuts detail to keep the English moving. In Achilles' speech in Book 21, Fitzgerald's "death waits for me, / for me as well, in all the power of fate" repeats the phrase "for me" where Lattimore does not, which adds emotional weight through a different route than the Greek provides. Lattimore gives you the structure of the original; Fitzgerald gives you something that sounds written for performance. Neither choice is free.
Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilleus
and its devastation, which puts pains thousandfold upon the Achaians,
hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls
of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting
of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished
since that time when first there stood in division of conflict
Atreus' son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus.
Anger be now your song, immortal one,
Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous,
that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss
and crowded brave souls into the undergloom,
leaving so many dead men—carrion
for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.