Cobel is Lilith (Spoilers for season 2 of Severance up to epsidoe 9)
As mythological analogues become more popular in the analysis of Severance and its menaings, I've found myself thinking about Cobel and who she represents. While I'm sure she holds similarities to many figures of myth and legend, the one I most associate her with us Lilith.
First and more obvious is her connection with children. Ancient Christians would hang pendnsnts of lilith on their children's beds hoping for her protection; as with Cobel posing as a midwife, her association is clear, yet sinister.
Second and perhaps more important is the similarities between their crashouts. Fundamentally, both are conceived of as women scorned. Lilith for refusing to lay under Adam, Cobel for refusing to give up control of the Severed floor. Both of which precipitate a loss of faith and an excommunication. Lilith when she flees the garden, Harmoney when she tares down her alter.
Third, the similarities in their escape. While being persued by Lumon, Harmony returns to her home town and finds the notes she made while developing the procedure, which she had been ordered to keep secret.
In some variants, Lilith, while being pursued by angels, speaks the true name of God and is transfigured into a devilish figure. Taking back the power she was previously told to conceal in an act of rebellious self-assertion.
Both are women fallen from grace, both are pursued by agents of their former masters, both wield a power forbidden to them to take revenge.
Perhaps most importantly is the Canon status of Lilith. Famously she is younger than Eve, a local mythological figure folded into stories by early followers of the Abrehamic religions. This is why most Christian churchs exclude her from cannon, in a not dissimilar way to the exclusion of Cobel from the Egans' narrative of Severance.
Lastly and most importantly, I feel the iconography of epaidoe 9 was more numinous than before, and was deliberately used to paint her as devilish from the perspective of Mark S.
