Antiphates lives on a small tropical island and is a vicious ruler of his people. In his temple he keeps a prism which has the power to enlarge or reduce in size anything he directs its beam at. In Temple of the Lestrigones Antiphates shrinks the Odyssey and its occupants in order to add it to his collection of miniaturised spaceships and animals. After they are miniaturised Ulysses and Telemachus fly their shuttlecrafts around Antiphates's temple. In the ensuing pandemonium Antiphates falls against the prism, activates it and is himself miniaturised, much to the relief of his people over whom he was an ungrateful, ill-tempered ruler.
Lestronia sums him up perfectly when she urges her fisherman brother to lose no time in delivering to Antiphates the miniaturised Odyssey: "Go quickly, it will put him in a good mood. He'll be less cruel today."