Who is “Egyptian Herakles” and why did Greeks use this title when referring to the Phoenician god Melqart? Why did the ancient Greek historian Herodotos seek the origins of Heracles and Aphrodite on the Levantine coast? In this talk I juxtapose these narratives of divine origins against the backdrop or artistic developments in early Greece, when art in the Aegean and elsewhere in the Mediterranean emulated Levantine and in particular Phoenician models. I will propose that Phoenician modes of representation (including Egyptian and Canaanite inflections) affected perceptions of cultural affiliations and origins. More generally I will address the issue of representation of the Phoenicians in Greek and biblical sources, positively or negatively, as agents of cultural change.