Anime and Manga
- In Osamu Tezuka's children's manga Unico, Oedipus makes a brief appearance in "The Tale of the Fangs of Athens" when a mother sphinx (named "Sphinx") explains to Unico that she ended up badly wounded after he solved her riddle. The protagonist ends up becoming a parental figure to Piro/Marusu (Sphinx's son) where he teaches him to be a "Brave and study sphinx" after her death. Taking her advice, Unico takes her son to a forest to teach him about the importance of self-defense and bravery. Occasionally, some of Oedipus' soldiers would visit the forest causing Unico to scare them off to protect Piro.
- Hercules: After spending a day out with Meg, Hercules mentions the part where they saw the play and says "I thought I had problems".
- Mr. Peabody & Sherman:Agamemnon: Uh, yeah, and don't even get me started about Oedipus. Let's just say that you do not want to be at his house over the holidays. It's awkward.
Literature
- In the Inspector Morse novel The Dead of Jericho, Morse — faced with a situation whereby a woman has died and a young man of her acquaintance has been blinded — espouses the elaborate theory that they had been lovers who had found out that they were mother and son (she having had a baby who was given up for adoption years ago) and had re-enacted this work. Turns out, he's wrong.
- Incest! The Musical: Freeze-Frame Bonus during the song "Ten Years". Mark is working at a Greek coffee shop called Oedi's, and the chalkboard says, "Try our new familial frappe!"
- The Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "The Puppet Show" takes place during preparations for the school talent show, and a Credits Gag shows the Scooby Gang doing an extremely inept performance of the play.
Music
- The Police's "King of Pain" includes the lyrics "There's a king on the throne with his eyes torn out."
- God of War Ragnarök: Mimir mentions the play to Atreus as an example of how the smallest lack of information from a prophecy can lead to wildly different conclusions (in the case, Oedipus not being aware that he was adopted). Mimir asks Kratos if he knew it, who responds that every Spartan knew the story of the "Theban king". The two discuss the play again later on, when Mimir criticizes it for being mostly composed of speeches and people giving terrible news, instead of actually dramatizing the descripted events on-stage. However, Kratos argues that unfolding a narrative in a single time and place uninterruptedly was a tradition in Greek theatre, as it'd make the Tragedy more clear to the audience.
- Oedipus in my Inventory is a retelling of the play from the point of view of the shepherd who smuggled baby Oedipus out of Thebes.
- Hark! A Vagrant: "A Book By its Gorey Cover, Pt 2"
:Oedipus: Hamlet! What are you doing here?
Hamlet: Oedipus? Must be some book about wanting to bang your mother.
