In Hesiod’s Works and Days, hope remains inside Pandora’s vessel after its other contents escape.
Hesiod describes Pandora opening a storage vessel from which troubles spread among human beings. The text says that only elpis, usually translated as “hope,” remains inside because Pandora replaces the lid before it can leave. This detail gives the myth its most famous ambiguity: hope may be a comfort preserved for humanity, or it may be another item withheld by Zeus.
The ancient Greek wording does not settle every modern interpretation. Elpis can refer to expectation more broadly, not only to optimistic hope. Readers have therefore debated whether the vessel contains hope as a benefit or keeps it away from humans as part of the punishment.
The modern expression “Pandora’s box” is already a translation-based development. Hesiod refers to a pithos, a large storage jar, rather than a small box. The answer remains hope because that is the standard English rendering of the final substance named in the story.