Chapman's 1611 version is the first complete English Iliad, written in rhymed couplets of fourteen syllables (often called fourteeners). The line is long and rolling, with end-rhymes that drive the pace forward. His diction is Elizabethan and ornate, full of inversions ("Achilles' baneful wrath resound, O Goddess") and added phrases the Greek does not contain: Hades becomes "that invisible cave / That no light comforts," and Achilles' choice ends with a moralizing tag, "'twere foolish pride, t' abridge my life for praise." He expands and editorializes constantly. Keats famously praised it. This one suits readers who want Homer as a Renaissance poet would remake him, and who enjoy older English. Anyone wanting close fidelity or quick reading should look elsewhere.
Achilles' baneful wrath resound, O Goddess, that impos'd
Infinite sorrows on the Greeks, and many brave souls loos'd
From breasts heroic; sent them far to that invisible cave
That no light comforts; and their limbs to dogs and vultures gave:
To all which Jove's will gave effect; from whom first strife begun
Betwixt Atrides, king of men, and Thetis' godlike son.