In Hesiod’s account, hope was the single thing that remained inside Pandora’s jar.
After Pandora opened the vessel, the evils inside escaped and spread among humanity. Hesiod’s Works and Days says that only hope remained within the container because Pandora replaced the lid before it could leave. This detail creates the myth’s enduring ambiguity: hope may be a consolation preserved for humans, or it may be another item withheld from them.
The Greek word used in the passage is elpis. Translators commonly render it as “hope,” but interpretations differ over whether it means positive expectation, an expectation of future trouble, or simply an emotional resource kept in reserve. The text itself does not fully explain why it stayed inside.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” is also a later wording. Hesiod described a pithos, a large storage jar or container. The association of the surviving hope with the jar is one of the myth’s most discussed interpretive features.