Berlin Foundry Cup

Its most striking feature is the exterior depiction of activities in an Athenian bronze workshop or foundry.

It depicts Hephaestus, the god of crafts, including smiths, handing the goddess Thetis armour and weaponry for her son Achilles, who is fighting in the Trojan War.

The statue appears to be in the final stages of production, since two workers, one of them marked as a smith by his characteristic leather cap, are smoothing or polishing its surface.

They were probably going to (or just did) engage in athletic activity, as indicated by the sports-related items (an oil flask and a strigil) suspended behind them.

The statue, still headless, is lying on a sand or clay support; a workman is holding one of its arms, carefully manipulating it with a hammer.

The soldering to join them (in reality it would have been an alloy of lead, antimony and tin with a low melting point) is probably being prepared in the furnace.

Behind the furnace, a youth is manipulating a bellows to kindle the fire; in front of it, a seated workman appears to be heating a metal rod.

For example, the man in front of the oven is crouched in such a way that his genitals are visible, a style of depiction normally limited to satyrs and slaves.