Explore "The Death of the Gods" by Dmitri Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Not far from Succi, a mountainous defile in the Haemus range[8] between Moesia and Thrace, two men were making their way along a narrow path, at night, through a forest of beeches. They were the Emperor Julian and Maximus the enchanter. The full moon was shining in a clear sky, and strangely illuminating the gold and purple of autumn foliage. From time to time a wan yellow leaf would fall swirling with a slight rustle. The air was full of moisture and the musty smell of a tardy autumn -- that soft, chill melancholy odour which puts men in mind of death. The soft masses of leaves made a brushing sound under the feet of the travellers, and round them in the silent woods burned the magnificent obsequies of the departing year.
[8] The Balkans.