Elpis

In Greek mythology, Elpis (Ancient Greek: ἐλπίς) was the personification and spirit of hope (usually seen as an extension to suffering by the Greek, 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 cornucopia in her hands. In Hesiod's Works and Days, Elpis was the last item in Pandora's box (or jar). Based on Hesiod's description, the debate is still alive to determine if Elpis was only hope, or more generally expectation.

Her Roman equivalent was Spes.

Elpis as described in Hesiod's Works and Days

The more famous version of the Pandora myth comes from one of Hesiod's poems, Works and Days. In this version of the myth (lines 60–105), Hesiod expands upon her origin, and moreover widens the scope of the misery she inflicts on mankind. Pandora brings with her a jar or, in most stories, a box containing "burdensome toil and sickness that brings death to men" (91–92), diseases (102) and "a myriad other pains" (100). Prometheus had – fearing further reprisals – warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus. But Epimetheus did not listen; he accepted Pandora, who promptly scattered the contents of her jar. As a result, Hesiod tells us, "the earth and sea are full of evils" (101). One item, however, did not escape the jar (96–99), hope:

59 Elpis

59 Elpis (/ˈɛlpᵻs/ EL-pis) is a very large main belt asteroid. It is a C-type asteroid, meaning that it is very dark and carbonaceous in composition.

Elpis was discovered by Jean Chacornac from Paris, on September 12, 1860. It was Chacornac's sixth and final asteroid discovery.

A controversy arose over the naming of Elpis. Urbain Le Verrier, director of the Paris Observatory, at first refused to allow Chacornac to name the object, because Leverrier was promoting a plan to reorganize asteroid nomenclature by naming them after their discoverers, rather than mythological figures. A protest arose among astronomers. At the Vienna Observatory, Edmund Weiss, who had been studying the asteroid, asked the observatory's director, Karl L. Littrow, to name it. Littrow chose Elpis, a Greek personification of hope, in reference to the favorable political conditions in Europe at the time. In 1862, Leverrier permitted Chacornac to choose a name, and he selected "Olympia" at the suggestion of John Russell Hind. However, Elpis is the name that stuck.