After Pandora opened her jar in Hesiod’s story, Hope remained inside.
Hesiod’s Works and Days says that the jar held destructive forces that spread among humans when it was opened. Hope stayed within the vessel after Pandora closed it. The Greek term is elpis, commonly translated as “hope,” although ancient discussions have debated whether it means positive expectation, anticipation, or expectation of misfortune.
This detail is often interpreted as explaining why humans can endure suffering: hope remains available even after evils enter the world. Other interpretations ask whether Hope is itself an evil held back from humanity, because the poem does not explicitly give a modern moral explanation.
The story does not clearly say that Pandora deliberately released the contents. In the surviving account, she opens the container and then shuts it, leaving Hope inside. Later versions vary in emphasis, but Hope is the standard answer associated with the myth.