In the Greek myth of Pandora, hope was the one thing left inside the vessel after its other contents escaped.
Hesiod says that Pandora opened the container and released the evils that would trouble humanity. Hope, called Elpis in Greek, remained inside because the vessel was closed before it could leave. The story therefore explains both the arrival of suffering and the continued presence of hope among human beings.
Readers often assume that hope escaped into the world alongside the evils. In Hesiod’s account, however, it stays within the container, creating a long-running interpretive question about whether hope is a comfort preserved for humanity or another item withheld from it.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” is also historically imprecise. Hesiod describes a large storage jar, or pithos, not a box. “Box” became standard through later translation and retelling, while the contrast between released evils and remaining hope became the best-known feature of the tale.