[nkoren]

Ancient Athens, at its peak, had a total population of less than 300,000 people. They represented the urban elite of an empire of a few million people at best. I think it would be difficult to find any comparably-sized contemporary population with a remotely similar genius per capita ratio.

[cfcef]

They probably also benefited from low-hanging fruit. No one today has the opportunity to invent 'logic' or 'the Pythagorean theorem' or 'the tragedy'.

[_wo6a]

Good article on Ancient Greek IQ: http://www.unz.com/akarlin/ancient-greeks-not-geniuses/