A common but not very well known myth: a woman has a liaison with a man who is travelling far from home, or leaves her for some other reason. There may be a powerful sorceress involved too, or they may be the same woman. The man departs, leaving a recognition token with her.

Unknown to the man, she gives birth to a son. The son grows up miraculously quickly. When he asks his mother about his father, she passes the recognition token on to him. Either the son goes in search of his father, or the father returns one day.

The father and son end up fighting, usually in an error of mistaken identity. One of them is mortally wounded. As he lies dying, the token is finally recognised, and they belatedly realise each other's identity.

But the sorceress knows of a magic that will save the dying person, or even bring him back to life after he's dead. Fetching it may involve a quest. Once it's fetched, it may work, or it may be too late.

The legend appears in both ancient and modern India, ancient Greece, mediaeval Ireland, mediaeval Persia, Germanic poetry and saga, 19th century Russian byliny, and 18th-19th century Faroe Islands. So it seems to be an Indo-European thing.

I'm a Hellenist, so I know the Greek variants best. Many elements don't appear in the fragments of Eugammon's Telegony, but they're there in later sources. The resurrection magic is in Theon; the recognition token is in Dictys of Crete and in Sophocles' lost Euryalos.

But the others have their fascination too. A special weapon appears in some - Cú Chulainn's gáe bolga, Hildibrandur's sword, Telegonus' spear. Some explore variants on who kills who. Ilya Muromets and Sokolnichek take turns; the end of the Hildebrandslied is missing.

The relationship between the women is fascinating too: Chitrangada and the Nagini Ulupi, Circe and Penelope (also echoed in Circe and Calypso?), Aífe and Scáthach.

It's tough to pull this material together, esp when some of the sources aren't available in a modern translation.