Question

How does Oedipus see himself?

Accepted Answer

At the opening of Sophocles's Oedipus Rex, Oedipus views himself as a "world-renowned king" and as zealous, ruthless, and obdurate in the pursuit of truth. Oedipus also believes that he has a greater depth of feeling than any of his people. Oedipus's character is put to the test, and he comes to accept that he is a prideful man who has tried to thwart the will of the gods, which brought great suffering to himself and to his family.

Answer

OEDIPUS. Children, it were not meet that I should learnFrom others, and am hither come, myself,I Oedipus, your world-renowned king.

It's clear from early in the Oedipus trilogy of plays—Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone—that Oedipus thinks very highly of himself, as the above lines from the prologue of Oedipus Rex show.
It should be noted that the three plays weren't actually written by Sophocles as a trilogy—three plays intended to be performed together—and the plays were also written several years apart and out of chronological order. Antigone was written first, in 441 BCE, Oedipus Rex in 429 BCE, and Oedipus at Colonus in 406 BCE.
Nevertheless, Oedipus's opinion of himself remains fairly consistent through Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, and correlate with opinions of him expressed by his daughters in Antigone, which occurs after Oedipus's death at Colonus.
In the aforementioned prologue, Oedipus continues:

OEDIPUS. My zeal in your behalf ye cannot doubt;Ruthless indeed were I and obdurateIf such petitioners as you I spurned.

Throughout the course of Oedipus Rex, Oedipus demonstrates that he is, indeed, zealous and ruthless in the pursuit of truth regarding Laius's murder.
He's also "obdurate," which is to say that he's stubborn and uncompromising in his beliefs, particularly about himself and his innocence of the murder, until it's proven that he is, in fact Laius's murderer, that Laius was his father, and that he married his mother, Jocasta.
In the same prologue, Oedipus remarks that he has a greater depth of feeling than anyone else.

OEDIPUS. Ah! my poor children, known, ah, known too well,The quest that brings you hither and your need.Ye sicken all, well wot I, yet my pain,How great soever yours, outtops it all.

This subtle bit of foreshadowing is borne out later in the play when Oedipus suffers greatly for his pride, his hubris, in trying to thwart the will of the gods and refusing to believe the truth of his parentage and the events of his life. Oedipus blinds himself at the sight of the suicide of his mother/wife, and he begs Creon to be exiled from Thebes for the murder of Laius in the fourth episode of Oedipus Rex.

OEDIPUS. Send me from the land an exile.
CREON. Ask this of the gods, not me.
OEDIPUS. But I am the gods' abhorrence.

In the prologue of Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus enters with his daughter, Antigone, and Oedipus shows that he recognizes his state in life and accepts his fate with a sense of self-loathing.

OEDIPUS. (to Antigone) Child of an old blind sire, Antigone,What region, say, whose city have we reached?Who will provide today with scanted dole This wanderer?'Tis little that he craves, And less obtains—that less enough for me ...

A little later her refers to himself as "The ghost of him who was once Oedipus," and as "The hapless [unfortunate] Oedipus."
Once again, however, Oedipus tries to conceal his identity and his parentage in Oedipus at Colonus, episode 1.

CHORUS. What is it, old man, that thou wouldst conceal?
OEDIPUS. Forbear, nor urge me further to reveal—
CHORUS. Why this reluctance?
OEDIPUS. Dread my lineage.

Oedipus's other daughter, Ismene, tells Oedipus and Antigone about the war between Oedipus's sons, Eteocles and Polyneices. Although Oedipus accepts the curse on his family and endures the punishment for what he's done, he further invites the wrath of the gods in Oedipus at Colonus episode 4 by cursing Polyneices, who comes to Oedipus for his support against Eteocles in the civil war between them.

OEDIPUS. (to Polyneices) Begone, abhorred, disowned, no son of mine,Thou vilest of the vile! and take with theeThis curse I leave thee as my last bequest:—Never to win by arms thy native land,No, nor return to Argos in the Vale,But by a kinsman's hand to die and slayHim who expelled thee.

Oedipus's life is at an end. He accepts his fate, and disappears from view, with only his friend Theseus as witness to his death. The messenger speaks about this in the exodus of Oedipus at Colonus.

MESSENGER. So we all heard him speak, and weeping soreWe companied the maidens on their way.After brief space we looked again, and loThe man was gone, evanished from our eyes;Only the king we saw with upraised handShading his eyes as from some awful sight,That no man might endure to look upon.

Oedipus's curse on Polyneices portends the events that occur just prior to the opening of Antigone, which begins with Antigone's reference to the curse of the house of Oedipus.

ANTIGONE. Ismene, sister of my blood and heart,See'st thou how Zeus would in our lives fulfillThe weird [meaning fate or curse] of Oedipus, a world of woes!For what of pain, affliction, outrage, shame,Is lacking in our fortunes [fate], thine and mine?

Antigone asks Ismene to help her bury their brother, Polyneices. This has been expressly forbidden by their uncle, Creon, King of Thebes, under pain of death. Ismene reminds Antigone of the curse on Oedipus's family.

ISMENE. Bethink thee, sister, of our father's fate,Abhorred, dishonored, self-convinced of sin,Blinded, himself his executioner.Think of his mother-wife (ill sorted names)Done by a noose herself had twined to deathAnd last, our hapless brethren in one day,Both in a mutual destiny involved,Self-slaughtered, both the slayer and the slain.

Nothing is said about Oedipus's character in Antigone, and there's no mention of his personal relationship with his children. Antigone only speaks of Oedipus in terms of the curse and the suffering and death that Oedipus brought on his family.

ANTIGONE. At this thou touchest my most poignant pain,My ill-starred father's piteous disgrace,The taint of blood, the hereditary stain,That clings to all of Labdacus' famed race.Woe worth the monstrous marriage-bed where layA mother with the son her womb had borne,Therein I was conceived, woe worth the day,Fruit of incestuous sheets, a maid forlorn,And now I pass, accursed and unwed,To meet them as an alien there below;And thee, O brother, in marriage ill-bestead,'Twas thy dead hand that dealt me this death-blow.

The Oedipus Trilogy

How does Oedipus see himself?

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