In Nicholas Adontz's opinion, the martyrology of Hripsime and Gayane (who may have been historical figures) originally existed as a separate story which was later combined with the story of Tiridates and Gregory and the conversion of Armenia. Adontz notes the story of Diocletian's wife Prisca and daughter Galeria Valeria as a possible historical basis; Prisca and Valeria supposedly converted to Christianity and were exiled to Mesopotamia by Emperor Maximinus Daza after Valeria refused to marry him. The name Hripsime is derived in Agathangelos from the Greek word ῥίπτω 'to throw', which can refer to the exposure of children, although there is no indication in Agathangelos that Hripsime was a foundling. Nerses Akinian hypothesizes that Hripsime was a slave girl based on an unattested meaning of ῥίπτω as 'to imprison'. Robert W. Thomson rejects the connection between Hripsime and ῥίπτω as a folk etymology. According to Nina Garsoïan, the victory of Hripsime over Tiridates, whose transformation into a boar reflects his identification with the Armenian-Zoroastrian deity Vahagn, represents the victory of the Christian God over the Zoroastrian one.
