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the evils swarm out. When the lid is slammed down— by Pandora’s
hand but by Zeus’s design— one spirit is trapped inside. This is Elpis,
“Hope.” The meaning of this crucial detail has been intensely debated
since antiquity.
In antiquity, Elpis/Hope was personified as a young woman. In “The
Girl in the Pithos” (2005), classical archaeologist Jenifer Neils identifies
three ancient artifacts that represent Elpis in Pandora’s jar. The first was,
until 2005, the only known image of Elpis. It appears on the Owl Pillar
Etruscan amphora mentioned above, with one side depicting Hephaestus
and the half- completed Pandora, the beginning of the myth. The other
side of that vase illustrates how the story ends (fig. 8.11).
Fig. 8.11. Zeus contemplates Hope/Elpis peeping out of Pandora’s jar. Red- figure amphora from
Basilicata, fifth century BC, inv. 1865,0103. © The Trustees of the British Museum.