In Hesiod’s account of Pandora, hope remains inside the jar after the other evils escape.
In Works and Days, Pandora opens the container and releases troubles that then afflict humanity. The text says that only elpis, commonly translated as “hope,” remains inside. This detail has generated centuries of debate because hope can be understood either as a comfort that protects people or as another kind of expectation associated with suffering.
The story does not describe a modern cardboard box. Hesiod’s container is a large storage jar, and the Greek word is pithos. Later retellings transformed the jar into a box, especially through Renaissance interpretation and translation.
The myth also differs from many popular summaries. Pandora does not necessarily close the container after hope escapes; in the surviving account, hope is still inside when the lid is put back. The passage is brief, leaving its exact moral meaning open to interpretation.