In Greek mythology, hope was the last thing to remain inside Pandora’s vessel after the other evils escaped. Hesiod says that destructive troubles spread among humanity, while hope stayed within the container because its lid was closed first.
The detail creates one of the myth’s central ambiguities. Hope can be understood as a comfort that remains available to people amid suffering, or as something withheld from them inside the vessel. Hesiod does not give a simple modern moral explanation, so later writers have interpreted the ending in different ways.
Many modern versions say Pandora “released hope,” but that is not the basic wording of Hesiod’s account. The ancient story places hope inside the vessel when it is sealed, and later traditions debate whether this makes hope a blessing, another affliction, or an essential human resource.