In Hesiod’s Pandora story, hope remained inside the jar when Pandora closed it.
Works and Days says that Pandora replaced the lid after the evils had escaped, leaving only Elpis within. Elpis is commonly translated as “hope,” although scholars discuss whether the Greek word has a broader meaning involving expectation or anticipation.
This detail has produced two major interpretations. Some readers see hope as a mercy that humans retain despite suffering. Others note that hope is trapped inside the vessel rather than released, and therefore read the ending as deliberately ambiguous. Hesiod does not provide a modern moral explanation of the scene.
The original story uses a pithos, an earthenware storage jar. Later European translations and artistic traditions popularized the phrase “Pandora’s box,” but the identity of the remaining occupant is consistently associated with hope in standard retellings.