Stephen Mitchell, a poet and translator known for versions of Rilke, Gilgamesh, and the Tao Te Ching, published this Iliad in 2011. He writes in a long unrhymed line, loose enough to read as natural English speech but with a steady forward push. The diction is modern and plain: Ares becomes "this raging madman, a monster of violence, a brazen and two-faced liar," Achilles tells Lycaon "you too must die. Why all this moaning about it?" Mitchell also cuts. His opening drops several lines of the Greek proem, and the Glaucus speech omits the geography that follows the famous leaves image. He bases his text on the controversial Martin West edition, which brackets or removes lines Mitchell considers later additions. Good for first-time readers who want speed and clarity over fullness.
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.