Hope remained inside Pandora’s container in Hesiod’s Greek myth.
In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora lifts the lid of the storage jar and the destructive forces inside escape into the world. Hope remains within the vessel after the lid is closed. The Greek word is elpis, commonly translated as “hope,” although scholars have debated the precise meaning and role of this final element in the story.
The detail is often interpreted as explaining why humans can continue living despite illness, labor, and other hardships. Some readings treat hope as a consolation preserved for humanity; others note that Hesiod’s wording and the jar’s function leave room for ambiguity. The basic narrative fact, however, is stable: hope is the element left inside.
The familiar phrase “Pandora’s box” comes from later tradition. Hesiod’s original container is a pithos, a large storage jar, and the story does not necessarily present Pandora as deliberately malicious. Her opening of the container is generally described as an act through which evils spread, with hope remaining behind.