Greek grammarian Parthenius of Nicaea preserves her story in his Erotica Pathemata ("sorrows about love"), which he attributes to Hellenistic poet Moero.
When the year had passed and Alcinoë had to pay the wages Nicandra was due, she instead drove her out of the house without giving the full price agreed beforehand.
By the wrath of Athena who had decided it was time to enact the woman's punishment, Alcinoë was inflicted with great passion for the man, and became infatuated with him.
[6] It has been noted that Alcinoë's short myth shares many plot points with Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina; the two stories share elements of the injustice inflicted on the lower class by the aristocrats, and the miconducts of an infidelious wife who abandons her husband and offspring for the sake of a new lover.
[7] Unlike Alcinoë, Anna is not cursed by a goddess, but both women are faced with an infatuation they are unable to control, and end up taking their lives once remorse over the serparation from the husband and children sets in.