In Hesiod’s Works and Days, hope remains inside Pandora’s container after it is opened.
Hesiod says that Pandora lifts the lid and releases the evils that had been kept within. The passage then says that only elpis, usually translated as “hope,” remains under the rim of the vessel because Pandora replaces the lid before it escapes. This is the source of the enduring image that hope survives even after suffering enters the world.
The detail has generated debate because elpis can mean expectation as well as hope, and scholars disagree about whether its confinement is beneficial, harmful, or deliberately ambiguous. The poem does not simply provide a modern inspirational slogan; its broader context is a harsh account of labor, justice, and human hardship.
Another common confusion comes from later retellings that say Pandora releases every evil but keeps hope as a gift. Hesiod’s wording is more complicated: hope is physically left inside the jar, while the evils escape. The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” also comes from later translation history.