In Hesiod’s story of Pandora, hope was the single thing left inside the container after the evils escaped. In Works and Days, Pandora opens a storage jar, releasing destructive troubles into the world; the text then says that only elpis, commonly translated as “hope,” remained inside beneath the rim.
The exact meaning of elpis has attracted debate. In ancient Greek, the word can mean expectation or anticipation, not only optimistic hope. Some interpreters therefore ask whether Pandora’s jar contains a blessing that protects humanity or an additional unknown element held back from the world. The poem itself does not give a modern psychological explanation.
The phrase “Pandora’s box” is also a later wording. Hesiod describes a pithos, a large storage jar, rather than a box. The familiar expression arose through Renaissance translation, while the surviving Greek version preserves the jar and the ambiguous final role of hope.