e of the "waters of birth falling profusely from the womb" (7). In considering the analysis of these images, it is important to note that various scholars might have shaped their analysis and interpretation of the images in accordance with their theories about prehistoric society. For example, Baring and Cashford are scholars who belong to the fertility school of thought. In their opinion, the prehistoric images of women are symbolic representations of the goddesses of fertility.
Of all the Venuses, it is the "Venus of Willendorf," one of the earliest icons of prehistoric art that has captured the imagination of many scholars. Dated from the 24,000 to 22,000 B.C., during the Upper Paleolithic Era, the exaggerated and bulbous form of her body has made the Venus of Willendorf a symbol of "natural femaleness, of uninhibited female power" (Witcombe, What's In a Name 7). By calling this statuette a Venus, the 19th century scholars attempted to make an analogy between the statuette and the Classical Venus. Although the Classical Venus is also naked,
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