In Hesiod’s Pandora myth, hope was the only thing left inside the container after its troubles escaped.
Works and Days says that Pandora opened the covered vessel, allowing the destructive contents to spread among humans. The text then says that hope remained inside because Pandora replaced the lid before it could leave. This closing image is the source of the familiar expression that hope survives even after every other hardship has escaped.
The Greek term is Elpis, a personified concept that can mean expectation or hope. Scholars have debated whether Hesiod presents hope as a comfort deliberately preserved for humanity or as another troubling force kept away from humans. The poem itself does not resolve that modern interpretive question in a simple sentence.
The story is also sometimes blended with later versions that say Pandora opened a “box.” In Hesiod, the container is a pithos, and the surviving item is hope. The combination of the vessel and the remaining hope became one of the myth’s most enduring cultural symbols.