Answer and explanation:
The way Odysseus and Telemachus deal with Melanthius the goatherd and the women who sported with the suitors was that Odysseus ordered that the would be taken outside and killed by sword, since they (Odysseus and Telemachus) wouldn't do the following, and I quote, "wouldn't give a decent death to women who have heaped insults on my and my mothers head, and slept with the suitors".
I personally don't think the book is over the top or is unsettling. The characters did what they thought was correct given the time, context and circumstances. The narrator does ending up writing in a way to make us, the readers, feel a little empathy and pity for the women.