Mitchell writes in verse, keeping lines relatively short and clipped. Murray writes in prose, with longer, clause-heavy sentences. The register difference is immediate. In the opening of Book 1, Mitchell has "the deadly rage that caused the Achaeans such grief," which reads as plain modern English. Murray has "that destructive wrath which brought countless woes upon the Achaeans," a construction that sounds formal and slightly dated without quite being archaic. Murray's prose also uses inversions and constructions like "fear thou not" and "so present a helper am I to thee" (Book 5), which place it in an older literary register. Mitchell's "a brazen and two-faced liar" from the same passage is conversational and direct. Neither register is neutral: one reaches toward the contemporary reader, the other toward a more ceremonial literary tradition. Murray, published in 1924 as part of the Loeb Classical Library series, aims at close fidelity to the Greek, preserving its structure and word order wherever English allows. This produces a text scholars can hold against the original line by line. The trade-off is that the prose can feel stiff. In Book 9, Murray gives "lost is my home-return, but my renown shall be imperishable," which tracks the Greek closely. Mitchell cuts the same passage to "my glory will live forever," which is faster and easier to read aloud but drops the specific word "home-return," a concept with real weight in the poem. Mitchell prioritizes performance and forward momentum. Murray prioritizes transparency to the source. A reader wanting to study the poem gets more with Murray; a reader wanting to move through a story gets more with Mitchell.
The rage of Achilles—sing it now, goddess, sing through me
the deadly rage that caused the Achaeans such grief
and hurled down to Hades the souls of so many fighters,
leaving their naked flesh to be eaten by dogs
and carrion birds, as the will of Zeus was accomplished.
Begin at the time when bitter words first divided
that king of men, Agamemnon, and godlike Achilles.
The wrath sing, goddess, of Peleus' son, Achilles, that destructive wrath which brought countless woes upon the Achaeans, and sent forth to Hades many valiant souls of heroes, and made them themselves spoil for dogs and every bird; thus the plan of Zeus came to fulfillment, from the time when first they parted in strife Atreus' son, king of men, and brilliant Achilles.