Abstract

Pondering on Hyperborean Winds in the context of the Tel Aviv century (1909-2009), brings to mind some mythical dimensions that have influenced practices, form and meaning in and of the city. Of the many gates into the subject of mythical Tel Aviv, I chose four main features of the myth of Hyperborea itself: the North (the four winds); Plenty (youth, health, arts); the Apollonian (clarity, boundaries, rationality) and Sunshine (light). The correspondence between components of Hyperborean myth and Modernist ideals is striking. Shifting between Tel Aviv as “the first Hebrew city” and “a modern metropolis like any other”, this city readily provides contents for the four Hyperborean categories. Urban design, related to these four dimensions, metamorphosed during the Tel-Aviv entury along with mythical content. Similar to creations in the other arts, it was always related not only to Hyperborean features, but also to their diametrical opposite, namely the Dionysian: scarcity, darkness and the South, or rather the East. The Hyperborean Winds, and their countercurrents that permeated Tel Aviv design, were embodied in philosophical and literary works, in prose and poetry; some of which still feature among Israeli cultural landmarks.