Lots of Stuff Today ..Where to Start?

Earlier today I was reading Anatoly Fomenko's History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 when I came across this;

Furthermore, the mediaeval emperor Otho III ("the Red"), who died in the alleged year 1002, can be identified as the "ancient" emperor Constance I Chlorus, the latter being the word for "ginger". We thus get a correspondence of names; both these emperors, in turn, merge into the single figure of the "ancient" Julius Caesar from the Second Empire, qv in Chapter 1 of Chron2. It would be interesting to find out whether or not Julius Caesar had ginger hair.

I should explain this quote by stating that the books main theme is that the historical record is wrong and that many stories we know from history are simply retellings of other historical narratives, just misinterpreted or told in a different language or from a different perspective. For example, Fomenko states that the Trojan War is just a retelling of the Gothic War, moved back into "ancient" history by misguided historians. It's contentious but interesting stuff. However, for the purpose of this blog I'm more concerned with the fact that he's mentioned people who may have had red hair.

I searched out Otho/Otto III ("the Red"), but came across some confusion. According to Wikipedia it's actually Otto II that was named "the Red" or "Rufus". However, the picture of Otho III on Wiki, taken from the Gospels of Otto III (10th or 11th Century), shows him with bold red hair.

Kind of a result I'd say :D

After that I searched out Constance I Chlorus aka Constantius Chlorus. I couldn't find any mention of his hair colour. However, when I looked up the meaning of Chlorus I found it was the Latin for pale, and not ginger. Although I guess pale could be interpreted that way.

Anyway, that got me thinking about the term Choleric - one of the Four Temperaments of Classical/Medieval medical thinking (Melancholic, Phlegmatic, Sanguine and Choleric). As it turned out I found that Choleric was associated with red hair. It reminds me of my other post on here about the four suits/races on Tarot and playing cards.

That finally brought me to a book on Google Books that mentions the Choleric/red hair link, along with some other interesting things about red and red hair.
The Epic Hero - Dean A. Miller

To the medieval mind the red-haired man was an object of suspicion (or even, according to Joel Grisward, a "disgrace"), not just because the red-headed man was invariably considered choleric, quarrelsome, or aggressive, but because he was likely to be "méchant" or "felon."

He also mentions this about Achilles;

The "red" warrior's persona may break out of any modifying or controlling ethos, not just from disequilibrating anger but out of its own sense of distinct, uncontrolled individuality. When Akhilleus, in his youth, is briefly disguised as a girl he is called Pyrrha, "red head." It is this same "red" essence that underlies his brittle savagery in the Iliad.

He also brings to our attention this guy;

Mstislav, a red-haired (and red-faced and intemperate) Kievan warrior-prince in a Slavic source[.].

A decent days work. Oh, and regarding my last post I did starting watching Defiance. It's pretty good actually. Season 2 starts tonight (: