In Paul Valéry’s Eupalinos ou l’architecte, Socrates and Phaedrus encounter each other in the afterlife where their conversation takes them to the subject of architecture and a certain Eupalinos, a master architect whom Phaedrus had known. Phaedrus shares with Socrates the contents of his discussions with Eupalinos regarding the art of architecture, its perfection, and the concern for order that occupied this architect’s mind. This discussion of the architect’s knowledge and skills and his evident love of his art, evoked a vivid memory in Socrates who then recounted to Phaedrus an event from his youth which had a pivotal significance in his life. Socrates had been walking by the sea when a mysterious object that had washed ashore attracted his attention. Upon examination, the partially eroded object left Socrates unsure as to whether it was a product of nature or of human artifice. This uncertainty compelled him to reflect upon a number of themes: the object, the matter and the form; the indivisibility between the maker and the made; the principles that inform construction; can principles and the act of construction be separated? And what of the relation between the necessary and the beautiful?