Boris Johnson Recites a Passage of the Iliad in Ancient Greek from Memory: Should We Be Impressed?

Even though the interview in question was in 2013, I see circulating on Social Media today competing opinions regarding Prime Minister Boris Johnson's ability to recite, impromptu and from memory, a lengthy passage from the Iliad. Watch the performance here:

Some were, not surprisingly, impressed. The day's study of this seems to have been prompted by this Twitter post, which does indeed politicize the matter:

Others, however, and from here the whole thing gets, at times further politicized, dismiss the ability to recite passages of ancient Greek. Here's one example:

The very eminent Classicist Mary Beard even describes this skill as "an easy party trick":

A Conservative Member of Parliament does push back against that assertion as follows:

Anyway, as someone who has studied the Classics extensively, and has committed some significant passages of Latin, Greek, Ancient Hebrew, and Arabic to memory, I have to weigh in.

Does this mean that Boris Johnson, because of the ability to recite some ancient Greek, is therefore smarter than everyone who can't recite it in this fashion?

No, it does not.

Is the ability to memorize for recitation "chunks of the Iliad by rote" "not hard" "if you know any Ancient Greek" and is, therefore, "an easy party trick"? 

No. It is not an easy party trick. 

I can assure you that a strong majority of those who have studied "any ancient Greek" cannot do what Mr. Johnson did. It required effort, long hours of memorization, and occasional review in order to keep that skill current. 

Yes, I am impressed that Mr. Johnson can recite some significant ancient Greek. And there should be nothing political about that.