Works and Days says Pandora closed the jar before Elpis, or Hope, could escape.
Works and Days is a didactic poem traditionally attributed to Hesiod and generally dated to the archaic period of Greek literature. Its Pandora passage appears in a larger discussion of labor, justice, agriculture, and the difficult conditions of human life. The jar episode helps explain why suffering exists while leaving hope as a surviving element.
The poem’s wording has prompted centuries of interpretation. The Greek term Elpis is often translated as “hope,” but the passage does not explicitly settle whether keeping hope inside the jar is entirely beneficial. Ancient and modern readers have debated whether the story presents hope as humanity’s consolation, as an uncertain expectation, or as something deliberately withheld.
The Iliad and Odyssey are famous Greek epics, but neither contains the familiar Pandora narrative. The Theogony mentions Pandora more briefly. Works and Days is therefore the key ancient literary source for the jar, its contents, and the closing of its lid.