...Bones helped to put ancient peoples in touch with the past and to vivify their mythology for them, but so did the recreation of these myths spatially. As it turns out, providing an area for reliving Roman myths was something not uncommon in antiquity or today...
This fact was particularly true for the private collections held by Roman emperors, which were often displayed in gardens and grottos. The so-called antrum Cyclopis (Atrium of the Cyclops) became a common feature installed in Roman villas in the imperial period. It was usually a watery grotto with sculptures of Polyphemus, the cyclops from Homer's Odyssey, and other scenes from Odysseus' travels...
Even into late antiquity and the early middle ages, the alleged bones of mythical creatures drew crowds. The emperor Constantine had a fascination with them. Saint Jerome states that the early 4th century ruler travelled to Antioch just to see the bones of a satyr that had been preserved in salt. The 6th century Byzantine historian Procopius notes that he stopped off in the Italian city of Benevento in order to see the 27-inch tusks of the Calydonian Boar famously battled by Greek heroes. As Mayor notes in her book, these were likely the tusks of woolly mammoths and not those of the mythic boar--despite what the signs at Benevento told visitors.Roman Emperors, Monster Bones, And The Early History Of Fossil Hunting | Sarah Bond | Forbes | June 29, 2016
[snip] The earliest documented case of a valuable fossil appropriated by a stronger state took place in 560 BC. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the city of Sparta stole a giant skeleton they identified as the giant hero Orestes. The skeleton (most likely that of a mastodon or mammoth) had been discovered in Tegea, a town that Sparta sought to dominate. Spartan soldiers absconded with the skeleton and enshrined the bones in their own city. Possession of Orestes’ remains was a brilliant propaganda move and the power that Sparta reaped from the fossil coup eventually led to the Peloponnesian War. [/snip]
Fossil Appropriations Past and Present
by Adrienne Mayor
https://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Mayorwhosebones.pdf
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Giants (Greek mythology)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giants_(Greek_mythology)