Reference to Dante's Inferno or coincidence?

I was just reading The Divine Comedy and, in Canto VI of Inferno, I noticed a scene that's similar to the bit in Hercules, during The Gospel Truth II, where Hades throws a chunk of meat to Cerberus. In Inferno, Virgil takes a handful of dirt and throws that to Cerberus.

Is the scene in Hercules a reference to the one in Inferno? Or is it just a coincidence and my imagination ran wild in connecting the two?

Here's the bit from Inferno, in the Robert Hollander translation. (Which you can read here: http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/index.html.)

22 When Cerberus -- that huge worm -- noticed us,
23 he opened up his jaws and showed his fangs.
24 There was no part of him he held in check.
25 But then my leader spread his hands,
26 picked up some earth, and with full fists
27 tossed soil into the ravenous gullets.
28 As the dog that yelps with craving
29 grows quiet while it chews its food,
30 absorbed in trying to devour it,
31 the foul heads of that demon Cerberus were stilled,
32 who otherwise so thunders on the souls
33 they would as soon be deaf.