Hey David, just thought of something. Like any good theory, your one has tremendous explanatory power, in that the more one looks at otherwise "inexplicable" references, the more they make sense according to the new interpretation.
As I understand it, you're in the process of writing your next book, on Norse/Germanic mythology. As you may know, many modern scholars (most of whom seem to be cultural marxists) go to unbelievable lengths to undermine Tacitus'
Germania as a reliable source. One of the ways they do this is through references Tacitus makes to Hercules.
Tacitus wrote of the Germanics (emphasis added, and as usual I'll flesh it out so everyone can follow):
http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/tacitus1.html
"They [the Germanics] say that Hercules, too, once visited them; and when going into battle, they sing of him FIRST OF ALL HEROES."
"Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with human victims. Hercules and Mars they appease with more lawful offerings. Some of the Suevi also sacrifice to Isis. Of the occasion and origin of this foreign rite I have discovered nothing, but that the image, which is fashioned like a light galley, indicates an imported worship. The Germans, however, do not consider it consistent with the GRANDEUR OF CELESTIAL BEINGS to confine the gods within walls, or to liken them to the form of any human countenance. They consecrate woods and groves, and they apply the names of deities to the abstraction which they see only in spiritual worship."
"We have moreover even ventured out from thence into the ocean, and upon its coasts common fame has reported the pillars of Hercules to be still standing: whether it be that Hercules ever visited these parts, or that to his renowned name we are wont to ascribe whatever is grand and glorious EVERYWHERE. Neither did Drusus who made the attempt, want boldness to pursue it: but the roughness of the ocean withstood him, nor would suffer discoveries to be made about itself, no more than about Hercules. Thenceforward the enterprise was dropped: nay, more pious and reverential it seemed, to believe the marvellous feats of the Gods than to know and to prove them."
...Such are the references to Hercules in Tacitus'
Germania. It appears that Tacitus himself is open about whether Hercules is meant as a literal person, or if he is somehow celestial, or if Hercules was both literally a person and a celestial being. But it is revealing that Tacitus and the Romans were content to leave it as an open question (a typically tolerant characteristic of the polytheistic mindset)...
Yet if we DO use a literalist lens, then it makes little sense (even if there were some imported aspects in the Hercules cult). After all, why would Germanic tribes, so far from the Mediterranean, revere Hercules as their foremost hero if he were a real person? (The odds seem very low that one person traveled so far through the world AND became the FIRST OF ALL HEROES EVERYWHERE...) In contrast, a celestial interpretation makes total sense, especially in light of the text that surrounds it, such as what was quoted above -- as Tacitus wrote:
"Mercury [i.e. Woden*] is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with human victims. Hercules and Mars [Tiu**] they appease with more lawful offerings."
*Compare Mercredi/Mercury's day in French = Wednesday/Woden's day in English
**Compare Mardi/Mars' day in French vs Tuesday/Tiu's day in English
I think many sacred stories could have had a kernel of historical truth, and such might have been the case with a Hercules character; but in the following case, only someone looking for strawmen would interpret this literally: Auðumbla, the giant cow in the sky...
And I find it fascinating that despite all the purposeful cultural destruction under the Church, that we nevertheless still use terms such as "The Milky Way" and the days of the week named after planets/gods... These sacred stories must really strike a chord with us!
Looking forward to your next book!