In Hesiod’s Greek myth of Pandora, hope stayed inside the jar after its troubles escaped. Hesiod’s Works and Days says that Pandora replaced the lid before Elpis, commonly translated as hope, could leave.
The ending is famously ambiguous. Readers have debated whether hope is a blessing preserved for humanity or another troubling thing kept from it. Hesiod does not provide a later explanation that settles the issue, so translations and interpretations differ while the basic event remains constant.
The object is a jar, not a box, in the earliest Greek version. The familiar “box” wording comes from a Renaissance-era Latin translation of pithos, the Greek word for a large storage container. The myth’s enduring image combines that mistranslation with the famous detail that hope remained within.