What is "telegony"

Telegony \Te*leg"o*ny\, n. [Gr. th^le far + root of Gr. ? to be born.] (Biol.) The supposed influence of a father upon offspring subsequent to his own, begotten of the same mother by another father. -- Te*leg"o*nous, a.

supposed influence of a sire on the offspring of a female by a later sire, 1893, from Greek tele "far off" (see tele-) + -geneia "origin," from -genes "born" (see genus).

n. The belief that in the case of siblings from the same mother but different fathers the second sibling could inherit characteristics from the father of the first

The Telegony ( Greek: , Tēlegoneia; ) 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.

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. 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.