In Hesiod’s Pandora myth, hope remained inside the jar after Pandora closed its lid.
In Works and Days, Pandora opens a storage jar, releasing the troubles that afflict humanity. She closes it before the final thing inside can escape. The Greek word is elpis, commonly translated as “hope.”
The story does not explain in detail why hope remains inside. That uncertainty has led to different interpretations: hope may be a comfort preserved for humans, or a further burden that remains contained. The familiar expression “Pandora’s box” is also technically a later wording. Hesiod describes a pithos, or large storage jar, not a small box.
The myth’s earliest surviving literary version is in Hesiod’s Works and Days, written in archaic Greece. Later retellings often simplify the story and present hope as the final gift left to humanity, but that positive interpretation is not fully spelled out in Hesiod’s text.