Aitios ∙ The Annotations by A.A.

Fragment 1. Aitios

It is a divine being which - when pregnant - hold billions of fetuses in the womb at once.

One day a disease broke out amidst the fetuses. A disease which causes the cells to recognize those of other fetuses and the womb as foreign.

The affected fetuses saw the womb as flesh as good for eating; as good as the flesh of other fetuses.

(...which of the two is the more excruciating pain?) Look at the pyramid. Stacks of fetuses feeding upon one another. The grown ones at the top suck their thumbs in contentment.

The children see the womb as the entirety of their world. As a result, they are deathly afraid of leaving it. They avoid being born with all that they could muster, seeing birth as the end.

Not knowing that after leaving the womb, they will spend their lives with

Mother.