In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora leaves hope inside the vessel after opening it. The poem says that the evils fly out into the world, while hope remains under the lid.
This final detail has generated centuries of discussion. Some readers see hope as a blessing preserved for humanity, while others note that Hesiod places it inside the same vessel as the evils and may therefore treat it as another ambiguous force. The text itself does not provide a simple moral explanation.
The story is also frequently misrepresented as saying that Pandora deliberately released the evils. Hesiod presents her as opening the container, but the poem does not turn the episode into a modern-style account of intentional wrongdoing. The later phrase “opening Pandora’s box” became a general metaphor for triggering many unforeseen problems.
Because English retellings usually call the object a box, many readers miss that the Greek original describes a pithos, a substantial storage jar.