I have checked from Iliad 2.1 to Iliad 2.485, where the Catalogue of Ships starts, to see if the terms "Achaeans," "Argives," "Danaans" and "Trojans" are reflecting and preserving the actual terms used in the Greek text. This is the case almost all of the time. I checked dozens of instances of "Achaeans" et al. in the Butler translation, and found only two cases where the English term was not an translation of the appropriate corresponding Greek term. At Il. 2.15, "Achaeans" is used to translate the Greek for Argives (Άργείοισιν), and at Il. 2.390, "Achaeans" is used for the Greek "Argives" again (Άργεῖοι).

When one of the Greek group names is used in the Greek text, it is not always reflected in the English translation. For example, it might be translated "the people" or "the army," or it might be omitted entirely. This is usually only done when the same term has been used in the Greek shortly before, and avoids repetition in the English translation. Therefore, although English does not reflect every single instance of each Greek term, it does give a fairly accurate sense of the frequency of each term and the environment in which each term appears.

I think it is worthwhile to preserve the distinction between these terms by listing them as separate groups, rather than merging them into one group and calling the other terms akas. It would still be useful, however, to have a way to see and refer to the Greek forces at Troy collectively. Is there a way to make them sub-groups of a group called "Greeks," for example?