In Hesiod’s Works and Days, hope remains in Pandora’s jar after she closes it.
Hesiod says that Pandora releases the evils stored in the container, but one thing remains inside when she replaces the lid: elpis, usually translated as “hope.” The Greek word can also carry meanings related to expectation, so the passage has attracted centuries of interpretation.
The myth does not simply present hope as an uncomplicated gift. Because hope stays inside while suffering spreads among humans, readers have debated whether its confinement is protective, punitive, or ambiguous. Hesiod does not provide a long explanation of the symbol.
The familiar English expression “Pandora’s box” is itself a later transformation of the original story. Hesiod describes a pithos, or large storage jar, not a box. The story appears in both Works and Days and, in shorter form, the Theogony, but the jar’s remaining contents are especially associated with Works and Days.