Stanley Lombardo is a professor of Classics at the University of Kansas. He is best known for his translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey. His translations, like others published by Hackett, are widely considered to be the best choice for teachers assigning the text to their students and for first-time readers. This is because the translation is very accurate and the style of the English is a more vernacular one emphasizing conversational English rather than the Ivy League tone of Robert Fitzgerald or, to a lesser extent, Robert Fagle's translations