The Silver Cups From Hoby
The Silver Cups from Hoby are silver cups from the large silver treasure found at Hoby in Lolland, 1920. The Cups are from the pre-Roman Iron age.
The Hoby cups are part of a larger set and comes from a large silver treasure, which contained silver objects with Greek and Roman images depicted on them. The images featured on both silver cups stems from Homer's Iliad and shows the heroes Philoctetes and Odysseus. Every cup weighs approx. 1 kg.
The creator of the cups is only known to us today because both cups are signed by the craftsman Cheirisophus, which is the name of a Greek artist. The name "Silius" is also written at on the cups - and therefore, there are some speculations that he might be the owner of the cups. He might have been a Roman army leader, who was stationed in Mainz in the years 14-21 BCE.
The Cups are exhibited at the National Museum in Copenhagen.