Murray's 1924 version is prose, prepared for the Loeb Classical Library, where it sat opposite the Greek text for decades and shaped how generations of English readers first met Homer. The diction is deliberately archaic even for its time: "thou", "telleth", "bourgeons", "raveth", "spake". Epithets stay close to the Greek, so Athena is "flashing-eyed" and Thetis "silver-footed". Murray keeps Homeric word order where he can. In the Book 9 passage, "lost is my home-return, but my renown shall be imperishable" preserves the Greek inversion rather than smoothing it into natural English. The result reads slowly and feels like Scripture. It suits readers working alongside the Greek, or those who want a literal crib that tracks the original phrase by phrase. Newcomers wanting momentum should look elsewhere.
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.