So, I was curious and wanted to check out other translations now that I've read a little into the Lattimore. I found a site listing all translations with some links to previews and such which can be found
here.
I sampled quite a few, usually reading the first 100 lines or so. Wow, what a difference a translation can make!
Generally, I found that the older ones were much harder for me to read. I thought they might be, but was surprised at how much difference there was in readability between older and newer translations. Pope, the most popular of the free older versions, honestly seemed much more difficult to me than the Lattimore I'm reading, and I think I'd have more questions about passages if I read the Pope or another older version than I do with Lattimore. Also, since the original apparently doesn't rhyme, I didn't like the rhyming in Pope's. However, I would say that the Pope is a majestic-sounding version with its own interesting style, just more difficult to me.
Of the many older translations listed on that site, only a very few seem to be available as ebooks, though some others have their entire texts available to read online. If I had to go with one of the few free ebook translations available, I might end up going with Pope if none of the others available seemed good enough, but I would look around a bit more at the old translations for a good, plainer, more faithful, non-rhyming verse translation that might be available as an ebook somewhere. Cowper is available as a free ebook and though it doesn't seem any plainer than Pope and may or may not have as much "majesty", is a more faithful, non-rhyming verse translation; you can see the inkmesh search for it
here or direct download links at project gutenberg
here.
Homer apparently wrote in a very plain and easy to understand style in the original language, so the older, more complicated English of older translations seems to make it unnecessarily more difficult to read in my opinion. If you are reading an older version and want something easier, I would suggest trying a more recent version. Unfortunately the more recent ones all cost money if that's a concern, but the difference (for me at least) in being plainer and easier to understand can be night and day.
After reading those, I'm surprised the Lattimore is referred to as textbook-like/hard by some. To me it seems much simpler than the older ones.
Of the newer versions I sampled, I generally liked them! A few of the lesser-known newer versions I tried seemed unnecessarily complicated and flowery, but the major popular ones were appealing and most newer ones were plainly written. Fagles was vibrant and simple, as was Lombardo, and Fitzgerald seemed beautifully written.
I'm still definitely sticking to Lattimore because I really like his faithful approach and plain style, but of the others, I think I might like best Fitzgerald as it seemed possibly the most beautifully written of them all, or Fagles for its vividness. Of course, my opinions are based on only the first about 100 lines or so of each.