In Greek mythology, Pandora left hope inside her jar after releasing its other contents.
Hesiod’s Works and Days says Pandora opened the container and released evils that thereafter afflicted humanity. The passage then says only hope remained inside, because Pandora closed the lid before it escaped. The Greek word is elpis, commonly translated as “hope.”
The story does not clearly say whether hope is a blessing, another evil, or a resource preserved for humans. That ambiguity has produced centuries of debate. In everyday retellings, however, hope is normally presented as the comforting thing that remains when suffering enters the world.
The object is called a jar or storage vessel in Hesiod’s Greek, not a box. “Pandora’s box” comes from a later translation tradition and became the familiar English expression. The myth also differs between Hesiod’s accounts, so modern summaries should not treat every popular detail as part of the earliest version.