In Hesiod’s Pandora myth, hope remained inside the jar after Pandora released its contents.
Hesiod’s Works and Days says that Pandora opened a large storage jar, releasing the destructive troubles that had previously been kept away from humankind. The text then says that only Elpis, usually translated as “hope,” remained inside because Pandora replaced the lid before it escaped.
The Greek word is elpis, and scholars debate whether Hesiod presents it as comforting hope or as another ambiguous feature of human existence. The poem does not describe the scene in the modern sentimental way of hope defeating evil; it simply places hope among the jar’s contents and has it remain within.
A common mix-up is the object itself. Hesiod wrote about a pithos, or large earthenware storage jar, not a small box. The “box” version became standard much later through Renaissance translation and artistic tradition.