In the Greek myth of Pandora, hope was the one good thing left inside the jar after its opening.
Hesiod says that Pandora’s container released troubles into the world, but Elpis remained inside. Elpis is commonly translated as “hope,” although its precise role is debated because the text does not simply present a modern feel-good ending. The story’s wording allows readers to ask whether hope was preserved for humans or withheld from them.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” is itself a later error. Hesiod describes a pithos, a large storage jar, not a small box. The identification of Elpis with hope is stable, but interpretations of why it stayed behind vary among scholars and retellings.