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The Chorus sings all about the terrible battle that has just been fought during their first speech. The audience gets the sense that the people of Thebes are furious at Polyneices for betraying and attacking them. "Like an eagle screaming, winging havoc over the land He hovered above our roofs, his vast maw gaping closing down around our seven gates, his spears thirsting for the kill " (Sophocles, 65). The chorus describes the harm Polyneices did to Thebes, portraying him as a man who sought to terrorize and kill. This helps to strengthen Creon's position about the traitor's burial because the audience gets the idea of how Thebes felt the terror and hatred toward Polyneices. This establishes that Polyneices is the bad guy and he should have no mercy in regards to his degree of punishment, which puts the audience on Creon's side. This is, of course, highly ironic. The audience has just read the prologue, in which Antigone declares her intentions to defy the law and bury her brother, stating "I will bury him myself. And even if I die in the act, that death will be a glory " (Sophocles, 63). This puts the audience in a conflicted state because just when they may have decided to empathize and side with Antigone on defying the law to honor her brother, they are exposed to the other side of the story. They now have the internal conflict of choosing between the law and tradition. .
After the presentation of Antigone's and Creon's reasoning for determining whether the act of burying Polyneices was the right act to do, the chorus first supports Creon. "Man the master When he weaves in the laws of the land, and the justice of the gods that binds his oaths together, he and his city rise high-- but the city casts out that man who weds himself to inhumanity thanks to reckless daring " (Sophocles, 77). The chorus is saying how Creon's laws are right and they know his laws are right because the gods approve of his ruling so Creon is lifted up as a just leader.
