"Oh Oedipus, king of the land, our greatest power!"
In the beginning of the play, it is clear the people of Thebes greatly respect Oedipus and that he holds much power.
"You, plotting to kill me, kill the king—I see it all, the marauding thief himself scheming to steal my crown and power!....Your treachery—you think I'd never detect it creeping against me in the dark?"
Oedipus is so prideful in his wealth and power that he doesn't even trust those closest to him (Creon) and thinks they're plotting to take what he has.
"You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see—you will kill your father, the one who gave you life!' I heard all that and ran. I abandoned Corinth, from that day on I gauged its landfall only by the stars, running, always running toward some place where I would never see the shame of all those oracles come true."
His prideful nature makes Oedipus believe he can escape his fate told by the oracles.
"'You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see—you will kill your father, the one who gave you life!'"
Despite Oedipus' efforts to escape his prophecy, he was still destined to marry his mother and kill his father - he never had any control over this situation.
"O God—all come true, all burst to light! O light—now let me look my last on you! I stand revealed at last—cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands!"
Oedipus realizes that the prophecy foretold has come true.
"Drive me out of the land at once, far from sight, where I can never hear a human voice."
He's blaming himself for the plague in Thebes and accepts the punishment and shame.
"How could I look my father in the eyes when I go down to death? Or mother, so abused...I've done such things to the two of them, crimes too huge for hanging."
He's inflicts punishment on himself because of his actions.
"Making my way toward this triple crossroad...a man, just as you've described him, coming face-to-face...one shouldering me aside, the driver, I strike him in anger!...he brings down his prod, two prongs straight at my head! I paid him back with interest!...I killed gem all—every mother's son!"
While Oedipus had a right to be angry about being driven off the road, his pride caused him to go on a murdering spree - which caused him to unknowingly kill his father.