According to Cicero [De Natura Deorum 3.16.42], there was an ancient Heracles character in India. According to Cicero, the name of this character was "Hercules Belus". Was this character the same as Baal? In general, is Heracles the same as the god Baal that was worshipped as a god in Phoenicia? Wikipedia presents an image of Baal (of Ugarit), and tells that this Baal is holding a lightning bolt in his hand. https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal .
To me that "lightning bolt" seems more like a staff, which would connect him to Heracles.
According to Megasthenes and Arrian [Indica 8], the Indians were telling already 300 BCE a hundreds of generations old legend, according to which King Heracles was born in the "hill country of India". This opens up space for a hypothesis, according to which the Indian Heracles was more ancient than all of his later Egyptian, Anatolian, and Greek namesakes, mentioned by Cicero.
P.S. I am asking these questions, as I am doing a 3rd edition of my book
https://agilepublishing.fi/books/atlas-and-herakles
Dear Pasi,
From my point of view, the name of the God Baal may be linked to many Eurasian roots which would come from vel, fight in the original Eurasian language. in Gaulish you can find vellaunos, vela (Glozel), linked to belo, strong, powerful in Gaulish and the Gaulish God Belenos (Belebog in Slavic, Velinas in Lituanian), which can be linked to vladar, leader (Bosnian), vlast, power (common Slavic), vel, king, chief (Dravidian), vali, great, honoured, glorified (Hittite), walo, king (Tocharian), balam, strong (sanskrit), which would all come from vel, fight (TE). Therefore an Indian origin seems quite plausible.
Best regards,
Xavier
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