In the Greek myth of Pandora’s box, hope remained inside after every other evil escaped.
Hesiod’s Works and Days says that Pandora opens the container and releases destructive troubles into the human world. When she closes it again, one thing remains within: elpis, commonly translated as “hope.” The story therefore places hope in a complicated position: it is retained inside the container rather than clearly released alongside the evils.
Scholars and translators have debated what Hesiod intended by elpis. In ancient Greek, the word can mean expectation or anticipation, not only the positive emotional quality meant by modern English “hope.” That ambiguity explains why versions of the myth sometimes offer different interpretations of the ending.
The popular phrase “Pandora’s box” also differs from Hesiod’s wording. The earliest surviving literary version describes a large storage jar, or pithos. The familiar box is a later translation tradition, but the surviving final occupant is still conventionally called hope.