Erinna
Ancient Greek poet · Writers
Erinna was an ancient Greek poet. She is best known for her long poem The Distaff, a 300-line hexameter lament for her childhood friend Baucis, who had died shortly after her marriage. A large fragment of this poem was discovered in 1928 at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt.
Erinna is read about 35 times a day, in 23 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 104 days, one point a day.
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Photos 4
Fanciful portrait of Erinna from Finden's Gallery of Graces (1834)
PSI 1090, which preserves fragments of 54 lines of Distaff
Léon Cogniet, Briseis Laments the Death of Patroclus 1815. The Distaff is a literary version of the ancient Greek funeral lament; Diane Rayor specifically identifies Briseis' lament for Patroclus in Homer's Iliad as a model for the poem
Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene by Simeon Solomon (1864)About this person
Along with The Distaff, three epigrams ascribed to Erinna are known, preserved in the Greek Anthology. Biographical details about Erinna's life are uncertain. She is generally thought to have lived in the first half of the fourth century BC, though some ancient traditions have her as a contemporary of Sappho; Telos is generally considered to be her most likely birthplace, but Tenos, Teos, Rhodes, and Lesbos are all also mentioned by ancient sources as her home.
