A woman’s irrational compound phobia becomes a reality as she travels through the desert while accompanied by fish.

Phobia #6: Hodoxeroichthyophobia.

A couple of years ago, I began a series of sixteen compound phobias. Each was a combination of three legitimate phobias to produce a (allegedly) fictitious and unusual phobia.

To elaborate further, the base phobias for hodoxeroichthyophobia and their meanings are listed below:

  • Hodophobia – fear of travel
  • Xerophobia – fear of dryness / deserts
  • Ichthyophobia – fear of fish

I plan to illustrate each over time but it’s taking a little longer to get around to it than I had expected. At the time of writing, there are three black and white drawings, so this week I decided to do a full colour cartoon to illustrate one and make it a post feature. The above cartoon is the result. I may add other phobias as posts in future.

Yes, it’s a little odd, but so are all the listed phobias on the Phobia page. The predatory shark following the woman as she walks along helps to exacerbate her existing fear of fish. Her skin tone has an overlay of translucent red to give her a sunburnt look.

I don’t envy this poor woman. If I were in her situation, I would soon develop a fear of travelling, deserts, and fish also.