The Superiority of Western Culture

I’m not sure how it happened, but recently I found myself watching a Canadian musician on YouTube named Peter Pringle as he conducted a lament for Gilgamesh, the titular hero of the ancient epic. Wearing a yellow mock turtleneck, Pringle delivered the performance using a replica of the Gold Lyre of Ur that he commissioned. The original is considered one of the world’s oldest stringed instruments. He sang the entire thing in Sumerian, based on text that was rediscovered and translated by Westerners. His video has more than 600,000 views. Not bad for an antediluvian tune.