In the Pandora myth, hope remained inside the jar after the other afflictions escaped.
Hesiod’s Works and Days says that Pandora released the evils contained in the vessel, while hope remained within. The detail is memorable because it gives the otherwise bleak story an unresolved but potentially positive ending.
Interpretations differ over whether hope was trapped as a benefit for humanity or retained as another hardship. The Greek word elpis can mean expectation or anticipation, not only the modern virtue of optimism. As a result, translations and philosophical readings do not all treat the ending in exactly the same way.
Popular retellings usually present hope as the good thing left behind for people. This is why “hope at the bottom of Pandora’s box” has become a familiar expression, even though the ancient text is more ambiguous than the proverb suggests.