Side by side, from the sources
Marduk vs Enlil
These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. Marduk assumes Enlil's functions and titles in the Babylonian promotion.
Deity · Mesopotamian · c. 1100 BCE
Marduk
also called Bel, Merodach, Bēl, Bel-Marduk, Marutuk, Mardochaios, Merōḏaḵ, 𒀭𒀫𒌓
Splits Tiamat and builds the world from her body, and is voted fifty names and supreme authority for doing it.
- Alignment
- Disputed
- Rank
- King of the Gods
- First attested
- Enuma Elish · c. 1100 BCE
- Named there as
- Marduk
- Texts naming it
- 3
- Powers attributed
- 5
90attestedMesopotamian
Deity · Mesopotamian · c. 2500 BCE
Enlil
also called Ellil, Elil, Nunamnir, Bel, Lord Storm
Holder of the Tablet of Destinies, and the god who decrees the flood. He was supreme until Marduk's Babylonian promotion displaced him.
- Alignment
- Disputed
- Rank
- Lord of the Air
- First attested
- The Atrahasis Epic · c. 1700 BCE
- Named there as
- Enlil
- Texts naming it
- 2
- Powers attributed
- 3
60attestedMesopotamian
Where do they actually overlap?
Texts naming both
Powers credited to both
Common questions
Are Marduk and Enlil the same figure?
These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. Marduk assumes Enlil's functions and titles in the Babylonian promotion. ColossiansOne records the link rather than asserting the identity: where texts disagree about whether two names denote one figure, the disagreement is what gets shown.
Which is older, Marduk or Enlil?
Enlil is the older name: first attested around c. 2500 BCE, against c. 1100 BCE for Marduk. Where the two dates are far apart, that gap is the whole reason the pair is worth comparing.
Do any texts name both Marduk and Enlil?
Yes — 1 text names both. A single text naming both figures is the strongest evidence available here that its author treated them as distinct, whatever later writers did with the pair.