In Hesiod’s story of Pandora, hope was the good thing that remained inside the jar after its contents escaped.
In Works and Days, Pandora opens a container holding evils that then spread among humans. The text says that only Elpis remained inside because Pandora replaced the lid before it could leave. Elpis is usually translated as “hope,” although scholars discuss whether the word means positive hope or expectation more generally.
The detail is more complicated than the familiar moral that hope survives every disaster. Hesiod does not clearly explain whether hope is a blessing deliberately preserved for humanity or another force kept away from humans. The poem’s wording and the action of closing the jar have generated long-running interpretations.
The container was a pithos, a large ancient Greek storage jar. “Pandora’s box” became the standard phrase much later, especially through European retellings and translations.