In Pandora’s myth, hope was left inside the jar after its other contents escaped. Hesiod’s Works and Days says that Pandora lifted the lid of the vessel, releasing the troubles that would afflict humanity, while hope remained inside.
The Greek word used in the passage is elpis, commonly translated as “hope.” Scholars have debated whether Hesiod presents hope as a comfort preserved for humans or as another troubling force held back in the container. The poem itself does not settle every later philosophical interpretation, which is why retellings sometimes describe the ending differently.
The familiar version says Pandora closed the jar before hope could escape. This detail is widely repeated in later summaries, although the exact wording and implications of Hesiod’s original passage have generated centuries of discussion. The myth is therefore more complex than the simple lesson that curiosity causes problems.
The vessel was originally a pithos, a large earthenware storage jar. Renaissance and later translations turned it into a box, creating the expression now common in English.