Sternens eam lectulo / fere decem horis  

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medieval vernacular literature

Sternens eam lectulo / fere decem horis is a phrase from the Carmina Burana, from CB 76. CB 76 describes a ten hour (decem horis) love act with the goddess of love herself, Venus.

It is part of a number of songs which describe love as military service (CB 60, 62, and 166), a topos known from Ovid's elegiac love poems.

Ovid and especially his erotic elegies were reproduced, imitated and exaggerated in the Carmina Burana.

In other words, for those unfamiliar with Ovid's work, depictions of sexual intercourse in the manuscript are frank and even sometimes aggressive.

Full text of quote

Dum caupona verterem vino debachtus,
secus templum Veneris eram hospitatus,
solus ibam prospere vestibus ornatus,
plenum ferens loculum ad sinistrum latus.

Venus clementissima, felix creatura,
cerno quod preterita noscis et futura.
Ipse sum miserrimus, res iam peritura,
quem sanare poteris tua leni cura.

"Bene," inquit, "Veneris noster o dilecte
iuvenis, aptissime cedes nostre secte.
Si tu das denarios monete electe,
dabitur consilium salutis perfecte."

"Ecce," dixi, "loculus extat nummis plenus,
totum quippe tribuam tibi, sacra Venus;
si tu das consilium, ut sat sim serenus,
tuum in perpetuum venerabor genus."

Exuit se vestibus genitrix Amoris,
carnes ut ostenderet nivei decoris.
Sternens eam lectulo fere decem horis
mitigavi rabiem febrici doloris.

Tribus reor mensibus secum sum moratus,
plenum ferens loculum, vixi vir ornatus recedens a Venere sum
nunc allevatus
nummis, atque sic sum pauperatus.

Terreat vos, iuvenes, istud quod auditis;
dum sagittam Veneris penes vos sentitis,
mei este memores; quocumque vos itis,
liberi poteritis esse, si velitis.