Hope: Is it the remedy left for us, or the worst trouble of all?

Source: Pandora's jar: When hope remained inside

But then the woman [Pandora] removed the great lid from the jar with her hands and scattered them—disasters and sicknesses to mortals [to the whole world]. Only hope alone remained in a steadfast and secure dwelling under the lip of the jar and did not fly outside, for the lid came down first and shut it in, keeping it from escaping.

(Hesiod, Works and Days, lines 94-98 (Ancient Greece, 7th century BCE). Translated by Shpan.)

Explanation: Gift or punishment? The hope trapped in the jar

In the foundational Greek myth, the gods punish mankind, and Pandora (a compound of pan, "all," and doron, "gift") opens a jar given by the gods, unleashing all manner of troubles upon the world: sickness, envy, old age, and death. At the last second, she shuts the lid, leaving only hope (Elpis) trapped inside. The great philosophical question shadowing the myth is: What was hope doing inside a jar full of troubles in the first place? Is it the "remedy" the gods left behind for humanity, or is it the worst evil of them all, which simply remained trapped? Does being a "prisoner of hope" mean being held captive by unrealistic expectations, or is it good to be enthralled by hope's spell?

Perspective: Nietzsche versus evolution: Hope as torture or salvation

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (in his book Human, All Too Human, aphorism 71) argued that hope is "the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torment of man." In his view, when someone knows there is no chance, they accept their fate and find peace. Hope is an illusion that keeps us suffering in expectation of something that will never happen.

Yet the opposite reading suggests that hope is the defense mechanism granted to humanity by the gods (or by evolution) to keep us from giving up and ending it all in the face of the horrors released from the jar. The fact that it remained "inside" (within us) is the only thing that enables humanity to survive the rest of the jar's contents. One might even read Pandora's jar as the womb, and its opening as the birth that brings into the world all those who harbor evil and hatred, while we still await the messiah, not yet born, to bring hope.

Going Deeper: "Perhaps there is hope": The minimalist hope of Lamentations

In the Book of Lamentations, at the very nadir of Jerusalem's destruction, appears a verse that offers a very different kind of hope from Nietzsche's:

"Let him put his mouth to the dust; perhaps there is hope" (Lamentations 3:29).

This chilling verse presents a minimalist, almost desperate hope. A person is brought low to the dust, silent, and yet clings to the word "perhaps." Judaism sees in this "perhaps" the narrow fissure through which light can enter. It is humility ("put his mouth to the dust") that prepares the vessel to receive hope, in stark contrast to Greek hubris.

Culture: Kafka and transcendent hope: "Plenty of hope—only not for us"

When his friend Max Brod asked Kafka whether there was any hope for this world, Kafka (famed for his bleak, bureaucratic vision) offered his famous, enigmatic reply:

"There is plenty of hope, an infinite amount of hope—only not for us."

This is a brutal interpretation of the Pandora myth: Hope exists inside the jar; it is an objective reality in the world; perhaps God will redeem the universe one day—but we, the little people crushed beneath the gears, will never get to enjoy it. This is a "transcendent hope" that offers no comfort to the individual, but merely affirms that some order exists in the universe, even if that order grinds us to dust. Many of Kafka's novels and stories portray just such a world—cynical, weary, and devoid of meaning.