The special thing about this cup is that it can be used as a normal drinking cup as long as it is only filled with a certain amount of fluid. If a person is to greedy thought and fills it up to much, the entire content will empty through a hole in the bottom of the cup. It is named after the famous Ionian Greek philosopher Pythagoras of Samos (b. about 570 – d. about 495 BC), you might know him from the Pythagorean Theorem. I did a bit of research and found just as many sources saying that he did invent the cup, as ones saying that say he didn't.