APOLLO OF 2000 YEARS AGO.

Shannon News, 21 July 1925, Page 3

APOLLO OF 2000 YEARS AGO.

FIN'D IN POM I’Ell STREET /OF ABUNDANCE. NAPLES, May 25. A large bronze statue about 6ft in Height, believed to represent Apollo, was excavated in Hie Via Dell Abbondanza (the Street of Abundance) yesterday in Pompeii, the ancient city which was destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79. The statue is in a good state of preservation and it is stated to be of good value. It lias beep taken to Naples Museum, where it will he examined by the Superintend eat of Monuments to determine its artistic and historical value. Experts declare that the bronze Apollo statue may prove the must important discovery of its kind for many years. It is stated to be perfect in all its details. It was .found wily a little wav below 1 lie ground. It was in the Street of Abundance four years ago that several notes on ivory tablets from patrician girls to successful gladiators were found. A translation of one of these love letters of 2000 years ago reads:— Art thou Phoebus Apollo in the body of Hercules? Indeed thou art a god to me. Thy beauty and strength have blotted from my eyes all other men. I am young and the suitors I despise say that I ant beautiful. I will await thee, beloved one, near the Temple of Isis.