Lattimore writes in verse, with long lines that stretch across the page and carry a forward momentum even when the syntax grows heavy. His diction sits in an elevated, slightly archaic register: "hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls / of heroes" packs noun against noun in a way that slows reading and asks the eye to work. Rieu writes in plain prose, with sentences that move quickly and reset after each clause. His opening, "that accursed anger, which brought the Greeks endless sufferings," is direct and modern. The Athena passage shows the gap in register clearly: Lattimore gives "that thing of fury, evil-wrought, that double-faced liar," while Rieu gives "that mad, double-dealing delinquent." Both translate the same Greek insult; one sounds ancient, the other contemporary. Lattimore worked to stay close to Homer's line structure and word order, so his translation carries something of the Greek's repetition and formulaic weight. The cost is occasional stiffness. Rieu wanted a readable narrative for a general audience, and his prose removes the verse architecture entirely. In the leaves passage, Lattimore ends with "So one generation of men will grow while another / dies," a short, broken line that lands with some weight. Rieu's version, "one generation grows, the other fades," is tidy and finished. Neither reproduces the Greek metre, but Lattimore preserves the shape of the thought across lines, and Rieu absorbs it into a continuous sentence. Readers who want to feel the poem's oral, repetitive character will find more of it in Lattimore; readers who want to follow the story without friction will find Rieu easier to sustain.
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 — 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.