Elpis in antiquity. Hesiod closes with this moral (105): "Thus it is not possible to escape the mind of Zeus." The asteroid 59 Elpis is named after her. Notes Citations Bibliography Elpis In Greek mythology, Elpis () is the personification and spirit of hope (usually seen as an extension to suffering by the Greeks, not as a god), perhaps a child of Nyx and mother of Pheme, the goddess of fame, renown and rumor. She was depicted as a young woman, usually carrying flowers or a cornucopia in her hands. In Hesiod's "Works and Days", Elpis was the last item in
Pandora to this, Pandora opened a jar ("pithos"), in modern accounts sometimes mistranslated as "Pandora's box", releasing all the evils of humanity. Hesiod's interpretation of Pandora's story, which is widely considered as misogynous, went on to influence both Jewish and Christian theology and so perpetuated her bad reputation into the Renaissance. Later poets, dramatists, painters and sculptors made her their subject and over the course of five centuries contributed new insights into her motives and significance. Hesiod, both in his "Theogony" (briefly, without naming Pandora outright, line 570) and in "Works and Days", gives the earliest version of the Pandora story.