Murray writes in prose, and Wilson writes in verse. That alone shapes everything a reader experiences. Murray's sentences are long and clause-heavy, built to carry the full weight of the Greek in one continuous movement: "lost is my home-return, but my renown shall be imperishable" (Book 9) keeps the parallelism tight but asks the reader to track grammar across some distance. His diction tilts archaic, using "thee," "thou," "bourgeons," and "lamentest," which creates a formal distance from the material. Wilson's lines are shorter and break the thought into smaller units. In Book 6, Murray gives "the forest, as it bourgeons, putteth forth others," while Wilson writes "The forest sprouts / new foliage." The line break does work the comma cannot: it pauses on the image before moving on. Murray (1924) aimed for a close, scholarly rendering, and the archaic register signals that aim directly. He rarely cuts a phrase the Greek contains, and the result is a text that rewards a reader following the Greek alongside it. Wilson's stated approach is contemporary accessibility, and the passages show it. In Book 21, Achilles tells the dying Trojan "So die, my friend. Why are you so upset?" The word "upset" is deliberately plain, almost jarring, and it makes the cruelty of the speech land differently than Murray's "why lamentest thou thus," which keeps Achilles at a heroic remove. Murray's version preserves the register gap between speakers; Wilson removes it. A reader who wants to feel the poem's rhetoric at close range will find different things in each.
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.
Goddess, sing of the cataclysmic wrath
of great Achilles, son of Peleus,
which caused the Greeks immeasurable pain
and sent so many noble souls of heroes
to Hades, and made men the spoils of dogs,
a banquet for the birds, and so the plan
of Zeus unfolded—starting with the conflict
between great Agamemnon, lord of men,
and glorious Achilles.