Pandora’s Greek name for the quality commonly translated as “Hope” is Elpis.
Elpis is the personification or abstract force of hope in ancient Greek thought. In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Elpis is the final presence associated with Pandora’s jar: the evils escape, but Elpis remains inside after Pandora closes the container. English translations generally render the name as “Hope.”
The meaning is more complicated than the modern word suggests. Ancient Greek elpis could refer to expectation or anticipation, and it was not automatically optimistic. Because Hesiod does not clearly state why Elpis remains in the jar, interpreters disagree about whether its confinement protects humans or deprives them of a resource.
Elpis also appears in other Greek religious and literary contexts. She was associated with a positive expectation of the future, but she was not one of the twelve Olympians. The Pandora episode made her especially memorable in later discussions of why hope exists alongside suffering.