Greek tragedies like Medea are an ethical nightmare. That’s why we need them | Charlotte Higgins

Ancient classics can reinforce patriarchal lies about women, but they also take us back to the origins of pernicious narratives

Last week, I found myself - at the end of a gloomy day - shot through with a burst of fierce, electric energy. It came from watching Sophie Okonedo's 90 minutes of flat-out fury as she played Medea, opposite Ben Daniels's Jason, in Dominic Cooke's production of the Euripides play.

Afterwards, I registered the fact that the woman sitting by me had actually put her hands over her face when Medea decided to murder her own children. I, on the other hand, had not. Why did I mentally urge her on towards the unspeakable deeds, inwardly channelling all the pent-up anti-patriarchal rage at my disposal? Wasn't there something deeply disturbing about that? Or was the play precisely doing its job in Aristotelian terms: providing a catharsis?