Telegony

The Telegony (Greek: Τηλεγόνεια, Tēlegoneia; Latin: Telegonia) is a lost ancient Greek epic poem about Telegonus, son of Odysseus by Circe. His name ("born far away") is indicative of his birth on Aeaea, far from Odysseus' home of Ithaca. It was part of the Epic Cycle of poems that recounted the myths not only of the Trojan War but also of the events that led up to and followed the war. The story of the Telegony comes chronologically after that of the Odyssey, and is the final episode in the Epic Cycle. The poem was sometimes attributed in Antiquity to Cinaethon of Sparta, but in one source it is said to have been stolen from Musaeus by Eugamon or Eugammon of Cyrene (see Cyclic poets). The poem comprised two books of verse in dactylic hexameter.

Title

In Antiquity the Telegony may have also been known as the Thesprotis (Greek: Θεσπρωτίς), which is referred to once by Pausanias in the 2nd century CE; alternatively, the Thesprotis may have been a name for the first book of the Telegony, which is set in Thesprotia. Such naming of isolated episodes within a larger epic was common practice for the ancient readers of the Homeric epics.

Telegony (pregnancy)

Telegony is a theory in heredity, holding that offspring can inherit the characteristics of a previous mate of the female parent; thus the child of a widowed or remarried woman might partake of traits of a previous husband. Until recently, previous experiments on several species failed to provide any evidence that offspring would inherit any character from their mother's previous mates. A similar phenomenon, whereby environmental (non-genetic) traits were passed, was later discovered in a species of fly.

Etymology

The term was coined by August Weismann from the Greek words τῆλε (tèle) meaning 'far' and γονος (gonos) meaning 'offspring'. The name may also refer to Odysseus' son Telegonus, who is mentioned in the ancient Greek epic poem Telegony.

Early perceptions

The idea of Telegony goes back to Aristotle. It implies that the signs of the individual, not only inherited from his parents, but also from other males, from which his/her mother had a previous pregnancy.

The theory, expounded as natural history by Aristotle, was accepted throughout Antiquity and revived with the rediscovery of Aristotle in the Middle Ages.