Hope remained inside Pandora’s jar in the standard reading of Hesiod’s myth. After Pandora opened the container, destructive forces escaped into the world, but hope stayed within it.
The Greek word used by Hesiod is elpis, usually translated as “hope.” The ending is unusually ambiguous: the text says that Elpis remained inside after Pandora replaced the lid, but it does not plainly state whether this was a blessing, a deprivation, or a mixture of both. Later readers generally interpret hope as the consolation left to humanity.
The story is often simplified into the claim that Pandora released every evil except hope. That captures the familiar interpretation but smooths over the ancient text’s uncertainty. The jar itself was a pithos, not a small box. “Pandora’s box” became the common expression after later European retellings and translations.