In Hesiod’s Greek myth, evils escape from Pandora’s jar before hope remains inside.
In Works and Days, Zeus has Pandora bring a large storage jar into the human world. When she opens it, harmful troubles spread among people. The story explains why human life contains illness, labor, suffering, and other forms of hardship.
The Greek word in Hesiod is pithos, meaning a large earthenware storage vessel. The familiar English expression “Pandora’s box” developed later, partly because Renaissance translators rendered pithos as “box.” The myth therefore concerns a jar rather than a small hinged container.
Hesiod’s account does not simply say that hope escaped alongside every evil. Hope, or Elpis, is described as remaining inside after Pandora closes the vessel, a detail that has produced several interpretations.