The Greek word commonly translated as “hope” in Pandora’s myth is elpis.
In Hesiod’s Works and Days, after the harmful forces escape from the vessel, elpis remains inside. English translations usually call it “hope,” although the precise meaning and role of elpis have been debated by scholars. The Greek word can refer to expectation or anticipation, not only to the positive emotion suggested by modern English.
This detail creates one of the myth’s famous interpretive questions. Some readers see hope as a comfort deliberately preserved for humanity; others ask why hope was kept inside a container associated with evils. The ancient text does not settle every later philosophical interpretation.
The word is not the name of a goddess in this passage. Elpis can be personified in Greek culture, but in the Pandora story it is presented as the final thing remaining in the vessel.