Odysseus told Telemachus to call nurse Euryclea. She found him among the bodies, spattered with blood and filth like a lion from feeding on an ox — terrible to look on. She was about to cry out in triumph, but Odysseus checked her: Rejoice in your heart, but do not cry aloud. It is not piety to glory over slain men. These the gods and their own reckless deeds have brought low. Tell me which women dishonor me, and which are guiltless. Euryclea answered: Fifty women servants are in your halls; of these, twelve have gone the way of shamelessness and pay no regard to me or Penelope. Let me go tell your wife. Do not wake her yet, Odysseus said. Tell those shameless women to come here. Telemachus has only newly grown to manhood, she added, and his mother would not let him give orders to the women.
Meanwhile he told Telemachus and the herdsmen: Carry out the dead with the women's help. Clean the seats and tables with water and sponges. Then take the women out between the round-house and the courtyard wall, and strike them until they forget Aphrodite — the one they had under the suitors. The women came wailing. First they carried out the bodies and set them under the portico. Then they cleaned the seats and tables. Telemachus and the herdsmen scraped the floor; the women threw the scrapings outdoors. When the house was in order, they led the twelve out and penned them in a narrow space. Telemachus said: I will not take any pure death from these women, who poured shame on my head and on my mother. He tied a ship's cable to a pillar and flung it round the round-house, high so none could reach the ground. As thrushes or doves strike into a snare — so the women held their heads in a row, and nooses fastened round their necks. They writhed a little while, but not for long. Odysseus himself directed the carrying of the bodies and hurried them on under force.
Then they brought Melanthius out. They cut off his nose and ears with the bronze, tore out his private parts for the dogs, and lopped off his hands and feet. When they had done this they washed and went into the house. Odysseus said to Euryclea: Bring sulphur and fire, so that I may purify the hall. And tell Penelope to come here with her maids, and have all the women servants come. She offered him a cloak and tunic, but he said: First light me a fire. She brought fire and sulphur. Odysseus purified the halls and the house and the court thoroughly. All that you have said is right, my child, Euryclea answered, and she obeyed.