In Hesiod’s story of Pandora’s jar, hope was the final thing left inside after all the evils escaped.
Hesiod describes Pandora opening a large storage jar that Zeus had provided. Troubles and diseases flew out into the world, while the jar’s lid was closed before the final occupant could escape. That occupant is usually translated into English as “hope.”
The detail has produced centuries of debate. The Greek word elpis can mean hope or expectation, and scholars disagree about whether its confinement is meant as a benefit, a punishment, or an ambiguous part of Zeus’s plan. The myth itself does not simply state that hope became available to humanity in the modern inspirational sense.
A common mix-up is the container’s name: Hesiod wrote about a pithos, or large storage jar, not a box. “Pandora’s box” became the familiar phrase through later translation history.