Hesiod uses the Greek word “Elpis” for the hope left in Pandora’s jar. Elpis is the personified or abstract concept of expectation and hope, and English translations commonly render it simply as “hope.”
The word appears in the closing part of the Pandora episode in Works and Days. After the destructive contents leave the vessel, Pandora closes it before Elpis can escape. Translators and classicists have debated the passage because ancient Greek elpis can mean expectation more broadly, not only positive hope. The surrounding poem’s harsh view of human labor and suffering makes the interpretation especially important.
Elpis is also a figure in Greek mythology and is sometimes treated as a spirit or personification. In other contexts, the word need not refer to a divine being at all. This distinction explains why translations vary in tone while retaining “hope” as the conventional answer. The Greek term is a more precise response than a general phrase such as “a good thing.”