T.S.Eliot diagnosed that the mythical method Joyce pursued in Ulysses was a step toward making the modern world possible for Art. Is the mythical method really a way through which literature can survive in the contemporary world? This paper attempts to examine this question in Faulkner`s handling of goddesses, in particular, Demeter and Persephone. The Demeter/Persephone myth - the story of the Maiden`s abduction and rape by the god of the dead and the Mother`s bitter grief - embodies the archetypal experience of women in a patriarchy. Faulkner sometimes described female sexual initiation in terms of the myth of Persephone. For Caddy and Addie, marriage is a kind of death, the descent to Hades. Using this myth, Faulkner effectively criticizes not only women`s unfair position in Southern patriarchy but also the religious and social atmosphere of the South which entails the negative prejudice toward sexuality as a vital life force. On the other hand, after Persephone`s abduction, Demeter does everything in her power to rescue her child from death, including letting the natural world go to waste. This pure archetype of maternity furnishes the ironic allusion to the novels of Faulkner who at the beginning of his literary career, is obsessed by the absence of maternity . In addition, that Demeter and Persephone shared one cult underlines their essential unity. Their unity suggests the cyclic vision related with rebirth and continuity. Although Faulkner sometimes emphasizes the unity of mother and daughter in such case of Caddy and Miss Quentin or Addie and Dewey Dell, it is very doubtful that their unity suggests the cyclic vision or fertility. Nevertheless, with continuous allusion to the mythic world, Faulkner evokes the cyclic vision of two goddesses to the readers. Like Eliot`s foresight, the more skeptical the writers are of modern civilization and society, the more devoted they are to myth filled with the cosmic mystery and pure archetype of life.