Literature - The Iliad

Sing, goddess, the rage of Achilles the son of Peleus,

the destructive rage that sent countless pains on the Achaeans...

This is the great-grandfather of all things that are manly. Take a moment to reflect upon the long passages dedicated to the blow-by-blow descriptions of hand-to-hand combat. Spinning the tale like a ring announcer, Homer gives the names of the fighters, tells how they taunt each other, lets them exclaim their battle-cries, and, then, goes on to gruesomely detail the ways in which they kill, maim and vanquish each other.

Was Homer "tapping into" that which is manly when he wrote his tale or has this story so affected that which is manly that his idiom has set our manly blueprint in stone? We will never know. For this reason, this work of fiction, The Iliad, belongs in the Manliness Hall of Fame.