In the standard Pandora myth, hope remained inside the vessel after the troubles escaped.
Hesiod’s Works and Days says that the harmful conditions left in the container escaped into the world, while hope stayed within. This ending gives the story its distinctive ambiguity: humanity suffers from disease, toil, and other hardships, yet hope is still available. The text does not present the episode as a simple explanation with one universally agreed moral.
Readers have long debated why hope remained inside. Some interpret it as a gift preserved for humans; others note that the Greek wording can support more complicated readings about whether hope was withheld, retained, or meant to protect people. Popular retellings usually present it positively as the final comfort left to humanity.
The answer is not “all good things.” The myth specifically singles out elpis, commonly translated as hope. This detail is why the story is often remembered as ending with a surviving source of expectation despite widespread suffering.