In Greek mythology, hope was traditionally left behind in Pandora’s jar after the other evils escaped.
Hesiod’s Works and Days says that Pandora opens a container and releases diseases and other troubles among humans. The text then states that one power remains inside because Pandora closes the lid before it can escape. That remaining power is commonly translated as “hope,” from the Greek word elpis.
The detail creates one of the myth’s major interpretive questions. Hope may be understood as a consolation preserved for humanity, or as another force confined inside the vessel. Hesiod does not provide a long explanation, so later readers have debated whether the story is optimistic, pessimistic, or deliberately ambiguous.
The phrase “Pandora’s box” can also obscure the original wording. Hesiod describes a large storage jar, and the surviving text does not present the episode as a simple moral lesson saying that hope is always good. “Hope remained” is the traditional summary, but its meaning depends on how the ancient passage is interpreted.