Distraction

Odyssey Book 24 line 376 Barry B Powell
Odyssey Book 24 line 376-379 Barry B Powell
Odyssey Book 24 line 379-380 Barry B Powell
Odyssey Book 23 line 319-320 Barry B Powell

Ithaca

...gathered from every corner with moaning and groans, in front of Odysseus' house.

So, that is what Rumor did! He was distracting the Achaeans from Odysseus' escape. And waited till Odysseus left the palace. Odysseus said to Penelope:

Odysseus has set a distraction for the Achaeans. Odysseus left the palace when everyone was gathered at Pyrgi.

Pyrgi

City

Fields

Wood of Apollo

Palace

... now I must go to my well-wooded farm, to see my noble father, who grieves bitterly for me.

And they make ready for fleeing the palace to Laërtes farm.

Themselves then gathered into the place of assembly, sad at heart.

Each carried his own dead from the house, and they buried the corpses. Those who had come from other cities, they sent to their homes, placing them on swift ships for seamen to carry.

When the kin of the suitors sped East to the palace, Odysseus and his men walked West south of the Wood of Apollo.

In those days bodies were buried as soon as possible and in the soil of the land of their fathers. So, the 12 suitors of Ithaca were buried on Ithaca and those of the Achaeans from Samos, Zacynthos, Doulichion, Crocyleia and Aigilips were sent to there islands to be buried there.

The official sunrise on December the 21st is at 7:37 in Greece, however due to Mount Neion the sun becomes only visible at 8:30 in Pyrgi. So there is plenty of time for Rumor to call the people to come and gather at Pyrgi to witness the the first sunrise of a new cycle of the sun.

When impossible to reach the land of the fathers within a day or so, the corpses were burned, like the hero's who died in the war at Troy.