In Greek mythology, hope was the only thing left inside Pandora’s jar after she opened it.
The story appears most famously in Hesiod’s Works and Days, where Pandora releases troubles into the world by opening a large storage vessel. The Greek word used for the vessel is pithos, meaning a large earthenware jar; the later Latin tradition helped popularize the phrase “Pandora’s box.”
The exact meaning of hope in the story is debated. Some readers interpret its remaining inside the jar as a final comfort for humanity. Others argue that hope was deliberately withheld, making it another misfortune. Hesiod does not provide a simple modern moral explanation.
The myth is often confused with the idea that Pandora received a small box. In the oldest surviving literary account, the container is a jar, and Pandora is associated with Zeus’s punishment of humanity after Prometheus took fire. The modern expression refers to an action that releases many unforeseen problems.